Catholic journalists urged to take active interest in Africa

Published: 2004-06-02

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Catholic journalists should take an active interest in reporting on current events in Africa, a continent besieged by AIDS, decades of war and man-made and natural calamities, said participants in a May 27 panel. Catholic journalists should do more to raise awareness of the situation in African countries, panelists said during a "Crisis in Africa" discussion during the Catholic Press Association's 94th annual convention in Washington. Emira Woods, co-director of Foreign Policy in Focus of the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington, urged Catholic journalists to "write stories that present one humanity." Woods said the media in general offered little coverage of the many positive stories occurring in Africa. She said Africa was the leading continent in emerging democracies, and that women were playing an increasingly significant role in the continent's development. But the mainstream media often missed stories of "incredible achievements of people struggling on the ground."

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