Pope Francis: Gossipy, Untruthful Reporting Is a Form of Terrorism

Pope Francis said that rumor-mongering writers who failed to report the truth were engaging in a form of “terrorism.”

Reuters reported that while addressing Italy’s national journalism guild, the pontiff told the reporters that disseminating gossip was “terrorism, of how you can kill a person with your tongue.”

“This is even more true for journalists because their voice can reach everyone and this is a very powerful weapon,” he said.

Italy’s newspapers are deeply politicized and often traffic in unfounded rumors to destroy political opponents, Reuters reports.

The press should not be a “weapon of destruction against persons and even entire peoples,” he said. “Neither should it foment fear before events like forced migration from war or from hunger.”

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