Rapidity, efficacy, synergy” “

“Agency journalism and Christian message” was the theme of the international colloquium held in recent days in Zagreb, in Croatia. The occasion for the meeting was the tenth anniversary of the foundation (22 April 1993) of IKA (Informativa katolicka agencija), the Catholic press agency promoted by the Croatian bishops and inspired “by the mission of service to the truth as a channel of dialogue with the other religious communities and with society as a whole”, explained Archbishop Josip Bozanic of Zagreb, president of the Croatian Episcopal Conference, in a message sent to the participants. Promoted by IKA in liaison with the Department of Croatian Studies of the University of Zagreb and the Croatian Association of Catholic journalists, the colloquium was honoured with a message of good wishes from John Paul II, signed by Cardinal Sodano, to mark the tenth anniversary of the agency’s foundation. “The Church is called to make her contribution to the construction of Croatian society”, observed the chairman of the government Commission for elations with the religious communities, Goran Granic. And Antun Suljiic, director of IKA, summed up the tasks of the agency as follows: “Contributing to a better communication within the Croatian Church and between it and society”, and “providing prompt and reliable information to Europe and to the world, especially to the Catholic public, so that the voice of our Church and our country may be heard among the countless voices of the world”. Austria. “Rapidity and efficacy”: these are the most demanding challenges “for the Catholic press agencies of Central and Eastern Europe, because whoever holds the first information on the market forms opinions”. That’s the view of Erich Leitenberger, editor in chief of the Austrian Catholic agency Kathpress and head of the press office of the Austrian Episcopal Conference. Leitenberg reviewed the network of Catholic press agencies in Central Europe. “The present situation requires networking at the European level”, he said. He also pointed out that “the Catholic agencies in the German-speaking countries have had a common press agency since Vatican Council II”. Ignazio Ingrao, president of the coordination of the member agencies of UCIP (Union of the Catholic International Press), also underlined the need “to reinforce the network of Catholic press agencies in Central and Eastern Europe” in order to make an original contribution to European construction”. Germany. Helmut Ruppert, editor in chief of the German Catholic press agency KNA, presented a rather downbeat picture of so-called “religious journalism” in the activity of the Catholic and Protestant media in Germany. “The Catholic and Evangelical press is not in good health, Christians are on the decline, links with the Church have been weakened, and there’s also been a decline in the demand for the religious press”, he remarked. Russia. “The history of relations between Orthodox Russia and the media began in 1990. Since then a huge and wide-ranging system of religious mass media, press, radio stations, TV programmes, press agencies and Internet sites has been developed. There are 13,078 recognized religious associations, 226 religious centres and some 12,000 communities belonging to 58 different confessions. Most of these associations and communities print their own material and have their own website”, explained Jelena Jurišiæ, of the University of Zagreb. Croatia. The religious information carried by the lay media was discussed by Mirko Bolfek, director of HINA, the Croatian press agency. A comparison between five national dailies and Le Monde (Paris) in the period 21-27 February shows that “the Croatian papers each published an average of eighteen pieces of religious interest against the nine of Le Monde“. In Bolfek’s view “the level of interest of Croatian national dailies in religious issues is high, but the journalistic rule according to which each event should be documented and explained in each article is not yet fully applied”.