Discrimination and negative stereotyping of Christians in the media by OIDAC Europe
There is a widespread perception among believers that the media perpetuates faith-based stereotypes.[1] This negative stereotyping is often the result of religious illiteracy among journalists.[2] While Christianity is the majority religion in Europe, this does not mean that Christian believers and churches are adequately represented in the media. Under-reporting and misrepresentation by the media are also common problems for Christian issues and groups.
Under-reporting
According to the Faith and News Study (2022), 53% of respondents felt that “media coverage actively ignores religion as an aspect of society“[3]. The under-reporting of Christian issues is particularly evident when it comes to Christian persecution. Although Christians are the most persecuted religious group in the world, this issue is not adequately reflected in the media.[4] The Swedish historian Dick Harrison recently observed that “today's persecution of Christians gets hardly any media attention”.[5] But this is not a new phenomenon. More than a decade ago, the Syrian Catholic Archbishop Casmoussa already spoke of a “News Blackout” when it comes to the persecution of Christians.[6] Christian respondents to a recent British survey also noted that “there seems to be little or no media interest in the atrocities committed against Christians in other countries.”[7]
However, this is also true when it comes to intolerance and discrimination against Christians in Europe. Over the past decade, OIDAC Europe has observed that the hate crimes committed against Christians and Christian places of worship are severely under-reported in Europe.[8]
“Leaving religion out”
Another form of under-reporting is incomplete reporting, for example when the media conceal the fact that Christians are specifically targeted in attacks or deliberately leave out religious elements. A striking example of this is the production of the British television series Downton Abbey. In 2015, the production's historical adviser reported that the executives had deliberately decided to “leave religion out” of the show. They feared that showing the family saying grace before meals would alienate the atheist audience and even considered renaming the show because the word ‘Abbey’ in the title might sound too religious.[9]
In some cases, the deliberate omission of religious elements does not only creates historical inaccuracies but can also lead to the distortion of current facts. A recent example of such distorted reporting was a neo-Nazi stabbing attack happened in Eskişehir, Turkey, in August 2024. The main local media, T24, reported that the terrorist’s original target had been the local church. The BBC, however, while basing its news coverage entirely on the T24 report, omitted the information that a church had been the original target in its coverage of the incident.[10]
A similar example was the vandalism of a Christian chapel in Germany, in May 2024. The vandal went on a rampage, tearing down a crucifix and ripping off the hand of a statue of a saint. Despite these brutal gestures, two local media channels commented that there were “no indications that the suspect acted on grounds of faith or even a rejection of the Christian church”, only because the perpetrator was under the influence of alcohol.[11]
A bias that leads to the omission of Christian references can also be observed among the political elite on social media. Following the Islamist terrorist attack on three local churches that killed hundreds of Christians on Easter Sunday 2019, President Barak Obama, among others, commented on Twitter (now X): “The attacks on tourists and Easter worshippers in Sri Lanka are an attack on humanity“, omitting the central words, namely that Christians were killed by Islamist extremists inside churches during a religious service.
Distorted Reporting, negative stereotyping and defamation
Another problem is that media coverage of religious groups is often distorted. According to the Faith and News Study (2022), 61% of respondents felt that the media “perpetuates faith-based stereotypes”, and for 43% “today’s news coverage of religion creates unease and anxiety.”[12] This also applies to Christian groups. A recent survey of more than 1,500 Christians in the UK found that “many respondents identified the media as having a central role in encouraging discrimination against Christians. This was either through creating foolish or unpleasant characters in television programmes, allowing anti-Christian blasphemy, or simply by perpetuating existing stereotypes.”[13] Respondents also felt that Christians were more likely to be portrayed in a bad light than other religious and identity groups.[14]
In some cases, negative stereotyping can even amount to defamation. In 2021, the BBC released a documentary about the Christian evangelical church “Hillsong” that defamed its pastors and suggested that its young people, donors and volunteers had been manipulated into being so passionate about the church. The church denounced the production saying that “much of the footage has been taken grossly out of context and sewn together to create storylines that simply do not reflect reality”. They also questioned whether “this project was ever intended to be fair or balanced. (...) It is clear to us that this project was misrepresented to us from the start.”[15]
There have also been examples of journalists expressing open hostility towards Christians. In 2021, the Spanish newspaper InfoLibre published the article Religious Stupidity by Luis Arroyo, which described religious people as “stupid religious fanatics”[16] The Slovakian singer Sima Magušinová was the target of abusive commentary by journalists who wrote: “She is a Christian. You shouldn’t make fun of disabled people.”[17]
This problem also extends to social media. Shadow monitoring by the Get The Trolls Out project pointed out that hashtags such as #SlaughterChristians #FuckChristianReligion #burnpriest have not been deleted from social media platforms, despite inciting violence against Christians.[18]
Finally, the spread of anti-Christian fake news by the media is a dangerous phenomenon, which was shown in Canada in what has been labelled by some “the biggest fake news story in Canadian history“[19]. In 2021, much of the Canadian media reported that the unmarked graves of 215 murdered Indian children had been found on the grounds of a former Catholic school. This led to nearly a hundred acts of vandalism and arson attacks against Canadian churches, some of which were burned to the ground. When excavations carried out failed to find any evidence of bodies, most experts concluded that the claims of mass graves were a hoax by activists that had been quickly spread by the media.
Conclusions
Secular media in Europe tend to under-report anti-Christian violence, omit specific Christian references and sometimes even spread distorted facts, negative stereotypes and defamation of Christians and Christian churches. While underreporting may simply reflect a lack of personal interest in religious issues on the part of journalists, the deliberate omission of religious references or even the defamation of Christians in reporting is more likely to indicate an anti-Christian bias on the part of some media producers.
Finally, the lack of outcry against defamation of Christians in the media indicates a certain public indifference to derogatory speech and misrepresentations against Christians, especially when compared to other religious or identity groups. This is a dangerous trend, as the exclusion or misrepresentation of religion in public discourse is a threat to pluralism and the representation of the diversity of society. Religious literacy training and a renewed commitment to journalistic standards and fair and truthful reporting are therefore essential to restore accurate and balanced coverage of all religious groups in the media.
[1] D. Nesho, “The Global Faith and Media Study”, Media Diversity, 2022,
https://www.media-diversity.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/63252a9daaa98ff1de1743c2_FAMI-_-Concordia-_-vF-Short-Version-Strategic-Dialogue_09.16.22.pdf, (last visit: August 19, 2024)
[2] APPG, “Final report of the APPG on Religion in the Media’s Inquiry into Religious Literacy in Print and Broadcast Media”, 2021, https://kahn-harris.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/APPGLearningtoListen1204212.pdf (last visit: August 19, 2024)
[3] D. Nesho, “The Global Faith and Media Study”, Media Diversity, 2022,
https://www.media-diversity.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/63252a9daaa98ff1de1743c2_FAMI-_-Concordia-_-vF-Short-Version-Strategic-Dialogue_09.16.22.pdf (last visit: August 19, 2024)
[4] S. Hartert, “Coverage of Persecution of Christians”, Katholische Universität Eichstätt-Ingolstadt, 2023, p.4
[5] OIDAC Europe, “Swedish historian Dick Harrison: Persecuted Christians get no headlines", 2022, https://www.intoleranceagainstchristians.eu/index.php?id=12&case=6165 (last visit: August 19, 2024)
[6] S. Hartert, “Coverage of persecution of Christians”, Katholische Universität Eichstätt-Ingolstadt, 2023, p.4
[7] Nick Fletcher MP, “The Costs of Keeping the Faith“, 2024, p.114, https://vfjuk.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/The-costs-of-keeping-the-faith-updated.pdf, (last visit: August 19, 2024)
[8] OIDAC Europe, „Annual report 2021“, 2022, p.10, https://www.intoleranceagainstchristians.eu/publications/top-5-report-2020-2, (last visit: August 19, 2024)
[9] P. Foster, “God banished from Downton Abbey, says show’s historical advisor”, 2015, The Daily Telegraph, https://archive.ph/uPTWe, (last visit: August 19, 2024)
[10] See original report by T24 at https://t24.com.tr/haber/eskisehir-saldirisinin-detaylari-saldiriyi-steam-uzerinden-tanistigi-dogu-avrupali-biriyle-planladi-kiliseye-saldirmaktan-son-anda-vazgecti,1179156; For Western media reports see e.g. https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c24p7mgp2d6o;
[11] OIDAC Europe,“Vandalism in st. Anna chapel in Altshausen”, 2024, https://www.intoleranceagainstchristians.eu/index.php?id=12&case=8078 (last visit: August 19, 2024)
[12] D. Nesho, “The Global Faith and Media Study”, Media Diversity, 2022,
https://www.media-diversity.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/63252a9daaa98ff1de1743c2_FAMI-_-Concordia-_-vF-Short-Version-Strategic-Dialogue_09.16.22.pdf, (last visit: August 19, 2024)
[13] Voice for Justice UK, “The Costs of Keeping the Faith”, 2024, p. 116.
[14] Voice for Justice UK, “The Costs of Keeping the Faith“, 2024, p. 116-125, https://vfjuk.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/The-costs-of-keeping-the-faith-updated.pdf, (last visit: August 19, 2024)
[15] OIDAC Europe, “Annual Report 2021”, 2022, p.24, https://www.intoleranceagainstchristians.eu/fileadmin/user_upload/publications/files/Annual_Report_2022_-_ONLINE_Web_View_Final.pdf (last visit: August 19, 2024)
[16] OIDAC Europe, “Annual Report 2021”, 2022, p.24, https://www.intoleranceagainstchristians.eu/fileadmin/user_upload/publications/files/Annual_Report_2022_-_ONLINE_Web_View_Final.pdf (last visit: August 19, 2024)
[17] OIDAC Europe, “Annual Report 2021”, 2022, p.26, https://www.intoleranceagainstchristians.eu/fileadmin/user_upload/publications/files/Annual_Report_2022_-_ONLINE_Web_View_Final.pdf (last visit: August 19, 2024)
[18] Get the trolls out, “Shadow Monitoring Exercise”, 2021, https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5ee500d316a2470c370596d3/t/6093cbf4a4eccf24498bca60/1620298779299/Get+The+Trolls+Out%21+Shadow+Monitoring+Exercise.pdf (last visit: August 19, 2024)
[19] Herald Sun, “Justin Trudeau hoaxed by the biggest fake news in Canada”, 2022,
https://www.heraldsun.com.au/blogs/andrew-bolt/justin-trudeau-hoaxed-by-the-biggest-fake-news-in-canada/news-story/4fa2b3764eb34aee143a37b25ff1dd10 (last visit: August 19, 2024)
