The archbishop of Canterbury has praised the “extraordinary value” of frontline reporters covering overseas conflicts and the Ebola crisis for shining a light on “this darkening world”.
Justin Welby said foreign correspondents and war reporters were a “God-given calling to inspire others to serve our common humanity” and helped challenge people’s complacency that what happened elsewhere in the world “did not matter”.
Welby, delivering the sermon at the annual journalists commemorative service at St Bride’s Church in London’s Fleet Street, reflected on a year in which journalists faced an unprecedented threat from Islamic State (Isis) and the danger of reporting the Ebola outbreak from west Africa.
“We live in a world where it feels as though the darkness is falling ever more severely on whole swathes and regions and in which the light of the news often seems to go out,” he said.
“There are whole areas where there is fighting that is forgotten because there is so much of it, whole areas which depend on the likes of James Foley and Steven Sotloff [the US journalists murdered after being kidnapped by Isis in Syria] to show some light on what is happening.”
Welby said frontline reporters were the “lookouts who stand on the watchtower” and paid a “profound cost” for what they saw, “sometimes deeply hurt mentally, emotionally, physically, spiritually, even killed doing it”.
“It is right and essential that we give thanks for those who witness, who unlock the covers of the wells of compassion that can become available, who challenge the complacency in which some people suggest that we can live in our own country as though the rest of the world did not matter,” he said.
He said his experience of conflicts and meeting war correspondents “leads me to suggest, controversially, that it is just a little bit possible that they are not all entirely saintly at every minute of the day.
“But there is an old saying in the church ... the fact that the priest is all messed up does not mess up the sacrament.”
The archbishop’s address followed new research which showed that the last two years were the most deadly and dangerous period for journalists in recent history. A total of 150 journalists were killed with Syria the most dangerous place.
Welby described Ebola as a “plague of extraordinary proportions” with reporters “as much at risk as anyone in a war zone”.
“It is right and essential that in this darkening world we give thanks for those who witness, who light the lamp of truth where it is being snuffed out by so many, not only by savage evil,” he added.
“To witness is to tell the truth. And the more horrific the circumstances, the more needful, the more precious, the more costly is the truth.”
The audience included representatives of TV and newspaper organisations including Channel 4 News presenter Jon Snow, Daily Mail columnist and consultant editor Andrew Pierce and Victoria Newton, editor of the Sun on Sunday, who also read a sermon.
Paul Vickers, secretary and group legal director of Trinity Mirror, and the BBC’s diplomatic correspondent Bridget Kendall gave readings.
Ben de Pear, editor of Channel 4 News, who was also in the audience, said: “In this year of all years, it’s really important to feel there is support from the very top of British society, including the Church of England.
“It’s been a horrendous year, everything that he said was right. Journalists are targets now, used almost as propaganda tools; it feels like another grimmer era.”
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