“We, the Catholics, would be happier if there were no news about Catholics at all,” interfaith activist Johannes Haryanto said while commenting about media reports on Catholicism in Indonesia.

Johannes made the statement while speaking at a conference on religion journalism at Multimedia Nusantara University (UNM) in South Tangerang, Banten, on Wednesday. He said erroneous reporting and careless word choice could end up creating more problems.

For example, the word “deviant” had been carelessly used by the media to refer to a particular religious group.

“I was once invited by a TV talk show titled Deviant [in reference to a certain group],” he said.

“How could the media be so judgmental?” he questioned. “The media should provide a space for [contradicting sides to] meet, engage in dialogue and state their differences.”

Read also: EDITORIAL: Faith in journalism

The conference, which brought together dozens of religion journalists from across Asia and beyond, discussed better practices in covering religion and religious communities.

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