"With your patient and rigorous work, you can act as a barrier against those who, through the ancient art of lying, seek to create divisions in order to rule by dividing."

Pope Leo XIV delivered these words to international news agencies this week in a remarkable defence of journalism's role in the world today. His intervention comes at a moment when democratic institutions worldwide face unprecedented assault by coordinated disinformation campaigns.

The first American-born Pope called journalism "not only an act of justice, but a duty of all those who long for a solid and participatory democracy." He insisted that "doing the work of a journalist can never be considered a crime, but it is a right that must be protected." Journalism is a life and death protection. Journalism, at its best,

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