Pope Leo XIV warns media against clickbait, calls for protection of journalism as public good

Pope Leo XIV delivered a pointed address on Thursday to MINDS International Association Conference participants with a keen focus on the media industry.

He called attention to what he described as a crisis in news production and consumption and urged the media industry to resist commercial pressures that compromise journalistic integrity.

Speaking from the Clementine Hall at the Vatican, the pontiff framed quality journalism as “a public good that we should all protect” and warned against what he called the “degrading practice of so-called clickbait” that corrupts communication.

Leo XIV identified a fundamental tension in contemporary media, despite living in what he termed “the age of communication,” both news organizations and their audiences face mounting challenges.

“Those who consume information are also in crisis, often mistaking the false for the true and the authentic for the artificial,” he said. The pope argued that this creates a situation where “no one today can say, ‘I did not know,'” placing responsibility on both producers and consumers of information to engage more critically with media content.

Journalists under threat

The address paid tribute to reporters working in conflict zones, noting that many have died while covering ongoing wars.

“If today we know what is happening in Gaza, Ukraine, and every other land bloodied by bombs, we largely owe it to them,” Leo XIV said.

He also renewed his call for the release of journalists who have been imprisoned for their work, a request he first made following his election.

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“Doing the work of a journalist can never be considered a crime, but it is a right that must be protected,” he stated. The pope described free access to information as “a pillar that upholds the edifice of our societies” and emphasized the need to defend it.

Drawing on remarks from his predecessor Pope Francis, Leo XIV acknowledged the structural challenges facing news organizations. He referenced Francis’s January 2025 address calling for “courageous entrepreneurs, courageous information engineers, so that the beauty of communication is not corrupted.”

The current pope expanded on this theme, noting that news agencies must navigate “the economic sustainability of the company with the protection of the right to accurate and balanced information,” principles he acknowledged are “unfortunately not always shared” across the industry.

He recognized the particular pressures on agency journalists who must “write quickly, under pressure, even in very complex and dramatic situations,” describing their work as requiring “competence, courage and a sense of ethics.”

Questions about algorithmic control

Leo XIV also raised concerns about the growing influence of automated systems in information distribution.

“Algorithms generate content and data at a scale and speed never seen before. But who controls them?” he asked.

He extended this questioning to artificial intelligence, asking “who directs it and for what purposes?” The pope warned against allowing technology to “replace human beings” and cautioned that “information and algorithms that govern it today are not in the hands of a few.”

The address concluded with a reference to political theorist Hannah Arendt, quoting her observation from “The Origins of Totalitarianism” that totalitarian rule thrives among “people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction and the distinction between true and false no longer exist.”

Leo XIV positioned journalists as a “barrier against those who, through the ancient art of lying, seek to create divisions in order to rule by dividing” and as “a bulwark of civility against the quicksand of approximation and post-truth.”

He called for transparency of sources and ownership, accountability, quality and objectivity as means to “restore the role of citizens as protagonists in the system.” The pope ended with an appeal: “Never sell out your authority!”