{"id":81380,"date":"2022-05-03T13:27:58","date_gmt":"2022-05-03T17:27:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.send2press.com\/wire\/?p=81380"},"modified":"2022-05-03T13:22:50","modified_gmt":"2022-05-03T17:22:50","slug":"on-world-press-freedom-day-the-importance-of-responsible-coverage-of-religion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.send2press.com\/wire\/on-world-press-freedom-day-the-importance-of-responsible-coverage-of-religion\/","title":{"rendered":"On World Press Freedom Day: The Importance of Responsible Coverage of Religion"},"content":{"rendered":"

LOS ANGELES, Calif., May 3, 2022 (SEND2PRESS NEWSWIRE) — On\u00a0World Press Freedom Day<\/a>\u00a0May 3, the Church of Scientology emphasizes that with freedom must come responsibility. As the\u00a0Washington Post<\/a>\u00a0stated in a recent article,\u00a0we live in \u201ca media environment that thrives on conflict.\u201d But when that conflict marginalizes people because of their religion, the consequences can be dire.<\/p>\n

\"The
PHOTO CAPTION: The Church of Scientology International publishes a booklet to clarify religious freedom, its ramifications in today\u2019s troubled world, and a code for responsible coverage of religion: \u201cThe Charter on Journalistic Ethics in Relation to Respect for Religion or Belief.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

The Church of Scientology International publishes a booklet to clarify religious freedom and its ramifications in today\u2019s troubled world.<\/p>\n

With its purpose\u00a0to help create a better understanding of the freedom of religion and belief and provide news on religious freedom and issues affecting this freedom around the world, the\u00a0Scientology Religious Freedom<\/a>\u00a0website and its\u00a0religious freedom blog\u00a0<\/a>promote responsible coverage of religion, religious beliefs and practices, and adherents.<\/p>\n

For example, the\u00a0Scientology Religious Freedom Blog<\/a>\u00a0covered two recent studies that found\u00a0nearly 60 percent of print articles and just under half of all television clips in the\u00a0British media associate Muslims with terrorism or extremism<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But it is not only Muslims who suffer from slanted and biased media coverage. Hate crimes against Christians in 2020 rose 70 percent over the previous year in Britain, Germany, France, Spain and Sweden, and one factor was found to be\u00a0\u201ca high level of religious illiteracy\u201d among journalists.<\/a><\/p>\n

In India, mainline and social media is being blamed for\u00a0anti-Muslim violence<\/a>.<\/p>\n

And this is not just a recent phenomenon. The\u00a0U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum<\/a>\u00a0has documented how media \u201cserved as an important tool to win over the majority of the German public who had not supported Adolf Hitler and to push forward the Nazis\u2019 radical program, which required the acquiescence, support, or participation of broad sectors of the population.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Church of Scientology publishes the booklet\u00a0\u201cWhat is Freedom of Religion,<\/a>\u201d which can be\u00a0downloaded from the website.<\/a>\u00a0The Church does so because a vital component in preserving this fundamental human right is ensuring an understanding of the right to freedom of religion or belief and its meaning under universal human rights principles and international human rights law.<\/p>\n

The booklet is designed to inform the public regarding the detailed and complex nature of the right to freedom of religion for believers and religious organizations of every faith.<\/p>\n

An important feature of this booklet, and one particularly relevant to United Nations\u00a0World Press Freedom Day<\/a>, is\u00a0the \u201cCharter on Journalistic Ethics in Relation to Respect for Religion or Belief.\u201d This is a journalistic code for the coverage of religion. The code is based on the principle that journalists \u201care accountable for the social and political consequences of their actions and have a duty to maintain the highest ethical and professional standards.\u201d The standards the charter puts forward are based on broadly accepted human rights codes and instruments referred to in the booklet.<\/p>\n

It is the responsibility of those who cherish freedom to ensure fair and accurate reporting of religion. Religious liberty has been likened to a canary in the coal mine<\/a> \u2014 which we ignore at our own peril. Because when religious freedom is ignored, stifled or attacked it predicts the loss of other human rights.<\/p>\n

From its beginnings the Church of Scientology has recognized that freedom of religion is a fundamental human right. In a world where conflicts are often traceable to intolerance of others\u2019 religious beliefs and practices, the Church has, for more than fifty years, made the preservation of religious liberty an overriding concern.<\/p>\n

The Church of Scientology publishes\u00a0daily blogs on this website\u00a0<\/a>to help create a better understanding of the freedom of religion and belief and provide news on religious freedom and issues affecting this freedom around the world.<\/p>\n

The Founder of the Scientology religion is\u00a0L. Ron Hubbard<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Mr. David Miscavige<\/a>\u00a0is the religion\u2019s ecclesiastical leader.<\/p>\n

For more information, visit the\u00a0Scientology website<\/a>, Scientology Newsroom<\/a>, Scientology TV network<\/a>,<\/a> and the Scientology Religious Freedom Blog<\/a>.<\/p>\n

LEARN MORE:<\/strong><\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.scientologyreligion.org\/blog\/<\/a><\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.scientologyreligion.org\/religious-freedom\/what-is-freedom-of-religion\/<\/a><\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.scientologyreligion.org\/<\/a><\/p>\n

MULTIMEDIA:<\/strong><\/p>\n

PHOTO link for media: https:\/\/www.Send2Press.com\/300dpi\/22-0503-s2p-cosethics-300dpi.jpg<\/a><\/p>\n

CAPTION: The Church of Scientology International publishes a booklet to clarify religious freedom, its ramifications in today\u2019s troubled world, and a code for responsible coverage of religion: \u201cThe Charter on Journalistic Ethics in Relation to Respect for Religion or Belief.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

LOS ANGELES, Calif., May 3, 2022 (SEND2PRESS NEWSWIRE) — On World Press Freedom Day May 3, 2022, the Church of Scientology emphasizes that with freedom must come responsibility. The Church of Scientology International publishes a booklet to clarify religious freedom and its ramifications in today’s troubled world.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8949,"featured_media":81379,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[608,12804,10,187],"tags":[12200,18115],"class_list":["post-81380","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-religion-news","category-ap","category-california-news","category-los-angeles-news","tag-religious-freedom","tag-world-press-freedom-day","has-post-title","has-post-date","no-post-category","no-post-tag","no-post-comment","has-post-author"],"acf":[],"views":2587,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.send2press.com\/wire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81380","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.send2press.com\/wire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.send2press.com\/wire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.send2press.com\/wire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8949"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.send2press.com\/wire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=81380"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.send2press.com\/wire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81380\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.send2press.com\/wire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/81379"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.send2press.com\/wire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=81380"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.send2press.com\/wire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=81380"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.send2press.com\/wire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=81380"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}