Andrea Tornielli, editorial director of the Dicastery for Communication, outlines the Vatican's media strategy on the war in Ukraine.
Since the beginning of the Russian offensive in Ukraine, on February 24, 2022, the Holy See’s means of communication have been strongly mobilized to make known the distress of the Ukrainian people. The Pope and the Secretariat of State seem to be taking a more general position, in order to maintain contacts with Moscow and to keep the door open to acting as a mediator. The editorial director of the Vatican’s media, Andrea Tornielli, tells I.MEDIA what is at stake in this war in terms of communication.
For more than a month, Vatican News and L’Osservatore Romano have published numerous articles on the war in Ukraine, clearly denouncing Russia’s responsibility, while the Pope has expressed himself in a less frontal way. How are the guidelines for the coverage of this war established at the level of the Dicastery for Communication?
The Vatican media outlets are trying to ensure fact-based communication, and to support the appeals made by the Pope. From the beginning, the aggressor and the victim have never been put on the same level. It’s clear that there has been an aggressor country and a country that was the victim of aggression. And so the fact that Vatican News and L’Osservatore Romano have published headlines about what happened in the war is not at all strange.
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