Bishop Calls for Release of BBC Journalist in Gaza

|PIC1|The Bishop of Lichfield, the Rt Rev Jonathan Gledhill, has used his Presidential Address to the Lichfield Diocesan Synod, meeting in Muxton, Shropshire, to call for the release of the BBC's Gaza Correspondent Alan Johnston, who disappeared on March 12.

He called on churchgoers to pray for Mr Johnston and his family, saying: "We are so grateful for the brave journalists like the BBC's kidnapped Gaza correspondent Alan Johnston, who risk their lives daily so that the truth may be broadcast. The BBC is the only Western television network in Gaza. Let's pray for Alan's release and for his poor family on tenterhooks. I ask for those who are holding him to see the damage they are doing to world peace and to their cause and to release him."

And he also confirmed his support for the ITN's "Terry's Law" campaign, to make the wilful killing of a journalist a war crime. Bishop Gledhill says such a law would be a "worthy memorial" to journalist Terry Lloyd who was killed four years ago while covering the war in Iraq.

His comments came in a speech in which he balanced support for the media in general and the news media in particular as a "critical friend" with a general critique of the general lowering of media standards.

He said: "How do we get our knowledge of the world, of people, of politics? From the newspapers, the TV and the net. But anyone who has any acquaintance with reporting knows that things tend to get distorted.

"We feel we know what someone said when we read it in the papers. But if you read more than one paper or the reviews in a weekly or monthly publication you soon get the impression that journalists often make stuff up - whether that impression is real or imaginary is open to debate"

He added: "Journalists, like historians or scientists or preachers, have to select their material and then present it in a way that supports their hypothesis. There is a terrifyingly thin line between truth properly simplified or explained and spinning a yarn which is fundamentally false, or shamelessly 'enhanced'.

"Most journalists want to tell the truth, but if they also want to be successful and if their papers or their TV companies are owned by a powerful tycoon, there is a fearful pressure on them to push a line."

The speech followed a debate on the effects of the media on human behaviour at last month's General Synod, which was originally sparked by a motion from the Rugeley Deanery Synod, part of the Diocese of Lichfield.