CSDC 416

In the world of the media the intrinsic difficulties of communications are often exacerbated by ideology, the desire for profit and political control, rivalry and conflicts between groups, and other social evils. Moral values and principles apply also to the media. “The ethical dimension relates not just to the content of communication (the message) and the process of communication (how the communicating is done) but to fundamental structural and systemic issues, often involving large questions of policy bearing upon the distribution of sophisticated technology and product (who shall be information rich and who shall be information poor?)”.⁸⁵⁰ Pontifical Council for Social Communications, Ethics in Communications (4 June 2000), 20, Libreria Editrice Vaticana, Vatican City 2000, p. 22. In all three areas — the message, the process and structural issues — one fundamental moral principle always applies: the human person and the human community are the end and measure of the use of the media. A second principle is complementary to the first: the good of human beings cannot be attained independently of the common good of the community to which they belong.⁸⁵¹ Cf. Pontifical Council for Social Communications, Ethics in Communications (4 June 2000), 22, Libreria Editrice Vaticana, Vatican City 2000, pp. 23-25. It is necessary that citizens participate in the decision-making process concerning media policies. This participation, which is to be public, has to be genuinely representative and not skewed in favour of special interest groups when the media are a money-making venture.⁸⁵² Cf. Pontifical Council for Social Communications, Ethics in Communications (4 June 2000), 24, Libreria Editrice Vaticana, Vatican City 2000, pp. 26-28.