The Media:
Society's Conscience

All of us, before we are journalists or any other kind of professional, are first human beings. The first responsibility of a human being is to exercise freedom in accord with basic moral principles. For the journalists, freedom of the press must be exercised according to certain moral standards, which are the common ground for all free men. This is where the importance of responsibility in media comes in.

‘Be Moral and Righteous’
Democracy cannot be exercised without a free press. And a free press cannot be truly free unless exercised with moral responsibility.

The media cannot be apathetic to the trend of decreasing credibility. We cannot close our eyes to our responsibility for the future of the world. We as founders, owners, writers and broadcasters of the media must squarely face the judgment of public opinion, the judgment of history and the judgment of God. We must recover the public trust, draft an accurate account of history and gain the approval of God—creator and final judge of us all. The media is at a crossroads. On one hand, if you try to limit press freedom by some legal means, you will most likely destroy it altogether. On the other hand, a media that can rampage at will, out of control, will always be in danger of losing its sacred public trust, with the same resulting loss of press freedom.

The only workable answer to this dilemma is self-imposed integrity and discipline. Remember, the only person standing between yourself and the abuse of your power is you. You must be strong and free enough to resist the tampering of governments, and you must be moral and righteous and stand up for justice or you will abuse the faith of the people and eventually lost press freedom. The lesson of history is that the result of the abuse of power is the loss of freedom. To be a great journalist, you must be a great human being, living in accord with the moral law of God. Therefore, the challenge of journalism starts from the challenge of being a moral and righteous person. (1984)

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The ‘Conscience of Society’
A moral media uses its freedom to protect, preserve and promote God-given human rights and dignity. The preservation of human rights and human dignity must be the standard of all ethics and morality. Therefore, the media must stand at the very forefront in the defense of human dignity and freedom and the crusade against all forms of injustice. Doing this is the best possible way to ensure world peace. The media must lead in the fight against all forms of oppression. Furthermore, ... the media must oppose corruption and racism and vindicate the unjustly accused. A moral media must lead the fight against drug abuse, pornography and many other destructive vices of our society. Thus, the media must become the conscience of society. (1989)

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Exercise Influence for Peace
You journalists are specialists in your field, but before that you are all God’s children. You are all champions of peace, specially called by God to help bring a new ethical standard into the world.

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In this time when the entire world and all of humanity is advancing toward the ultimate true world of peace, the media must understand that it is called by God to an important mission in helping to realize this world. The media must add its efforts to those of all others who are working for peace, and must exercise its tremendous influence for bringing about the ideal of a humanity united as one family. (1992)

A Historical Responsibility
The role and responsibility of the media cannot be separated from the historical context. Therefore, the various functions of the media, ranging from factual reporting to review and criticism, should be conducted with the proper understanding of the direction of history and our historical responsibility. ... At this turning point in history, when the world is seeking a new dimension, it is extremely important for all journalists to emphasize God-centered values.

Today polls all over the world reveal a growing distrust of the media. Journalism and mass media stubbornly persist in thinking only of their narrow self-interests; they believe only they have the truth and they fail to understand the value and importance of preserving the family and society. From this perspective it is understandable that they are criticized by the public. This implies that there are big gaps between the absolute standard of value being commonly recognized and pursued by humanity, and the various perspectives held by the media. (1995)

In the global information age of the 21st century, the peoples of different nations will exercise tremendous influence on each other across international boundaries. Thus, the immoral aspects of any one major country’s culture can easily have a negative influence on other countries. The coming of the information age, which itself is a result of advances in industries that apply communication and information technologies, is the fundamental factor hastening us into a world in which information is shared by all humankind.

In such a world, merely reporting the facts of the news will be much too elementary. It will be an important role of the media to determine how to interpret and evaluate the facts, and thus provide the direction in which the audience is guided.

Here it is important to examine the worldview, philosophy and historical outlook held by media organizations and journalists themselves. In other words, it will be necessary for journalists to share positive and idealistic values regarding humanity and world peace and prosperity.

Thus we should have a global perspective. If the kind of media that satisfies people’s base desires and interests from purely commercial motives sets the trend, then the world will become an even more gloomy and unhappy place in the 21st century. (1997)

World Media Association
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