Media Manipulation of Religious Topics – Shaping Public Opinion through Censorship and Disinformation

The development of online media has opened up numerous opportunities for media manipulation and unlimited media space for deliberate distortion of information about the Catholic Church, fostering religious intolerance, and discriminating against religious groups through manipulative presentation of religious topics in Croatian media. To contribute to preserving freedom of thought and religion and to protecting objective public information from manipulation, Croatian Catholic Radio, in collaboration with the Croatian Catholic University and the Croatian Catholic Journalists’ Society, launched the project »Voice of Truth – Vox Veritatis,« wherein a dedicated newsroom verified the accuracy and validity of statements, news, and publications related to the life of the Catholic Church in Croatia and globally. The results of this research are published for the first time in this article, aiming to encourage the creation of higher-quality and more credible journalism in the field of religious reporting.