Reverend Felix Ajakaye, the Bishop of the Catholic Diocese, Ekiti State, tasked journalists in Nigeria with investigative journalism.
Ajakaye made the call while presenting a paper at an event ahead of the 2021 World Communication Day in Osogbo.
The World Communication Day 2021, with the theme: “Come and See” (John 1:46) ”Communicating by Encouraging People Where and as They Are”, will be celebrated on Sunday, May 16.
Ajakaye said that investigative journalism should be promoted and encouraged among media professionals as a way of giving reports and communication credibility.
”Pope Francis has said that there is no room for Armchair Journalism, where a journalist bases his report or presentation on mere speculation.
He said that “come and see” is the simplest method to get to know a situation and the most honest test of every message.
”In order to know, we need to encounter, to let the person in front of me speak, to let his or her testimony reach me,” he said.
According to him, historically, all through the ages, there had been existing relations between the Church and social communication.
“Inevitably, the Catholic Church, from her inception to the present day, has kept on communicating both within her and the secular world, through various available means, in both verbal and non-verbal symbols.
“St Paul VL Pope, introduced World Communications Day in 1966 to celebrate the media practitioners and artists all over the world.
“Since 1966, the Catholic Church has continued to set aside a day to celebrate people and communication, with each year having its own theme and message by the Pope annually.
“Following the model of Jesus Christ, the perfect Communicator, the Church uses the media to sanitize the world of insanity by moving closer to the media, media practitioners and users,” he said
”Lozano Garrido, a Spanish journalist (1920 to 1971), said journalists must make report presentations that are credible, which would enable the readers feel the essence of their reports.
“Investigative Journalism is what should be promoted in any sane society, a society where it is not anything goes, a society that upholds justice for peace and development,” he said.
He said that social media, through digital technology, gives timely first-hand information that is often quite useful.
”It is, however, a powerful tool, which demands that everyone should be responsible as users and consumers,” he said.
He said that journalists should be applauded for their efforts, which enables the world to know the hardships endured by persecuted minorities in various parts of the world.
He noted that numerous cases of oppression and injustice were inflicted on the poor and on the environment, and many wars that otherwise would have been overlooked or not reported.
Every year on Sunday before Pentecost, the Church celebrates the achievements of the communications media and focuses on how it can best use them to promote gospel values.
The World Communications Day was established by Pope Paul VI in 1967 as an annual celebration that encourages reflection on the opportunities and challenges that the modern means of social communication (the press, motion pictures, radio, television, and the internet) afford the Church to communicate the gospel message.
The celebration came in the wake of the Second Vatican Council, which realized it must engage fully with the modern world.
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