Pope Leo has seemingly weighed in on media coverage of the U.S. and Israel war with Iran, this time calling on journalists to depict human suffering and to avoid amplifying propaganda.
In a social media post, the American-born pope wrote, “In the dramatic circumstances of war, information must guard against the risk of turning into propaganda. It is every journalist’s duty to verify the news, so as not to become a megaphone for power. They must show the suffering that war always brings to populations, which entails showing the face of war and recounting it through the eyes of victims.”
Although the pope’s post was not specific, it follows a weekend in which President Donald Trump has raged against negative media coverage of the war. His FCC chairman Brendan Carr has threatened the licenses of broadcast outlets, while his defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, has railed over cable news chyrons and claimed that stories of military tragedy are an effort to hurt Trump. The president on Sunday also warned about Iranian propaganda using AI generated content, while claiming without evidence that unspecified media outlets were knowingly distributing it and even working in coordination with the Tehran regime.
The pope’s latest post, though, appeared to be a call for journalists to capture the human cost of war, rather than the shock and awe of military might.
The pope has called for a ceasefire, writing on Sunday, “May paths of dialogue be reopened! Violence can never lead to the justice, stability and peace for which the peoples are waiting.”