Cham Bumo Gyeong
Book 9: Activities in the Media, Education and the Arts for the Culture of Heart
Chapter 2: World Media Conferences and Media Outlets 
Section 1. World Media Association, Role and responsibility of the media
Section 1. World Media Association, Paragraph 11

Chapter 2.  World Media Conferences and Media Outlets 

Section 1. World Media Association

Role and responsibility of the media

True Parents have often spoken about the importance of the media in realizing a world based on the culture of heart. For this purpose, they have made tremendous investments. They have especially emphasized that the media as the fourth estate, connected to the first three estates—the executive, legislative, and judicial branches of government—has the important mission to promote the realization of world peace and defend the democratic system. To accomplish this, True Parents established and actively supported various media outlets and began World Media Conferences.

1  I have advocated that we consider this time to be the era of the fourth estate. The media, which is the fourth estate, needs to fulfill a leadership role that goes beyond the three estates of government—the executive, legislative, and judicial branches. I have long been aware of this. Only the media can take on this role. Therefore, despite the difficulties, I have established media organizations and raised them to positions of prominence in the world. In America, The Washington Times occupies the most central position.

2  The fourth estate, the world's media, has to be gathered together and set in a proper direction. Unless this is done, the world has no way forward. I have prepared for this for a long time. If we can educate people properly through the media, comparing and contrasting the truth of God and the spirit world with the world's present way of life, the ideologies of humanism and materialism will be shown to be bankrupt. People will lose interest in free sex and homosexuality. With this in mind, we have to educate people through the media.

3  The era in which the first three estates dominate life will pass. The world should be guided primarily through the media, the fourth estate. I am not talking about the World Media Association in its earlier form. We must propose something revolutionary. That is why we have to organize a "Supra-World Media Association" conference in Korea. What is the meaning of "supra" in this name? You cannot understand it if you do not know God and the spirit world. When you become aware of God and the spirit world, you can resolve all the problems of communism and politics.

I have been contending with the world until now in order to establish a media foundation. The Washington Post and The New York Times are no longer an issue for The Washington Times. They have no choice but to follow the direction of The Washington Times. Some time back, the World Media Conference in London invited The Washington Times to take the leading conservative role. The Washington Times is also a leader in the adoption of the Internet and is affiliated with the UPI news service. It is robust, both internally and externally.

4  In this era of the fourth estate, we have to set the direction in all areas. No nation, or even the United Nations, can set the proper direction. The media must do it. We all can see how the media organizations in Korea influence the elections. When people misuse the media, they destroy society. To lead the world from an unbiased perspective, media professionals need to have God behind them. If they do not work together with the global leadership of religion, they can destroy society. That is why we are holding conferences centered on the fourth estate, the media.

5  Who will lead the world into the future? Universities cannot lead the world, nor can governments or the military. Those approaches have already been tried. Democracy and communism cannot lead the world either. In this era of the fourth estate, the media must investigate communism. If media professionals cannot achieve a clear perspective as to whether it is right or wrong, they must resign. They must also look into the democratic world. The capacity of the media to investigate things in a short period of time is unparalleled. The media has this power. Therefore, media organizations must be objective and accurate.

6  In America, progressives are trying to dominate the three estates of government. The media organizations, which make up the fourth estate, are decidedly liberal. There are more than 1,700 media organizations in America. The Washington Times has contended with all of them, but an environment now exists in which one-third of these 1,700 media organizations respect us. In the past, The New York Times reported negatively about the Unification Church, and The Washington Post also had a biased viewpoint, but now the environment has changed; it cannot keep going as it has been. Distortions and false reports have been exposed.

Conferences and fact-finding tours

On October 19, 1978, the first World Media Conference was held at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York City. Since then, almost every year World Media Conferences have been held to discuss the responsibility and role of the media and to establish true principles for the media. Publishers, editors, columnists, reporters and scholars from media organizations around the world, as well as other eminent figures in the world of media have participated. 600 representatives from 65 nations attended the 11th World Media Conference, held from April 9 to April 13, 1990, in Moscow. On April 11, 1990, True Parents had a face-to-face meeting with President Mikhail Gorbachev in the Kremlin, opening a new door for relations between South Korea and the Soviet Union. True Parents supported fact-finding tours for journalists worldwide in order to gather information on under-reported stories.

7  In the United States, because the internal and external environment is prepared and we are at the center of things, I founded a newspaper company. As soon as I set this up, I invited editors-in-chief and publishers from 40 top newspaper companies in America to visit Moscow. This was a significant event. It was clearly a sensitive matter for officials in the Soviet Union to know that Reverend Moon, representing The Washington Times, which was well known in the free and democratic world, was organizing this event. In this environment we need to inspire media professionals to hold summit conferences in the near future. In developed nations, such as Germany, we should create a press corps to gather information about the government's agencies. This will cause those agencies to work for the benefit of all Europe. If one nation in Europe starts a movement that improves the political climate and helps achieve peace in the region, other nations will follow suit. If the media continues working in this way, there is no doubt that eminent journalists will rally together.

8  I declared that I will convene a Moscow rally. When I get there, I will aggressively ask questions of the Soviet media. I will ask about communism and insist that they answer my questions. Then a summit meeting between the president of the United States and the general secretary of the Communist Party. That is why we need the media. We are already in an age when the media can lead the world. I host World Media Conferences in order to guide global leaders.

9  Media organizations should adhere to an impartial perspective by which to guide citizens on a daily basis, a perspective that can highlight what is right and what is wrong. In reality, media organizations seek their own benefit. They are so busy seeking their own benefit that they ignore the benefit of society. They have reached the stage where they have become selfish. Behind the scenes they abuse political power, and as long as they have the money, they do whatever they please. Therefore, global media organizations that are following the right path as public-minded organizations should advocate a perspective that will lead to having an unselfish viewpoint at all times. Next is the issue of information. The Soviet Union is collecting and disbursing information that is adverse to the United States and the free world. If the policies of the Soviet Union and the free world do not change, this problem will never be rectified. Communism, with its ideology as the absolute standard, is trying to weaken the foundation of the free world by pursuing its own communist interests. Moral education can serve to rebalance the flow of information, but no one is providing it.

That is why journalists worldwide, who do have that ability, must come together and stop the United States and the Soviet Union from simply pursuing their own benefit. To restore the balance, journalists should proclaim this balance publicly, but they cannot do so. This is a problem. That is why I am educating the media through the World Media Conferences.

10  In the United States, I founded The Washington Times. I did so because there must be a conservative daily newspaper in America. It has been five years since its establishment in 1982, and today it is considered one of the top four daily newspapers in America. It has become the only newspaper that provides hope to people all over the world. The Washington Times has gained the people's confidence. Furthermore, I have been organizing World Media Conferences. On September 20, 1987, I will hold a great global event in Seoul, where hundreds of people will gather. In this way, I am proposing the direction the world should take. In doing this, we enter a stage in which even the extreme-left political parties, which opposed our international gatherings, will have to participate. If they do not participate, they will become increasingly isolated. This is how the world is moving now.

11  Scientists always seek results, and cause and result always need to be aligned. Nothing can exist based on contradictory values. Pursuing this, we must establish the absolute standard of God and connect human ideological standards to that absolute standard. This is the work that scholars, religionists, politicians, philosophers and the leaders of all fields worldwide must do. In this way, based on an ideological standard, I am connecting journalists to society's leading centers of education and proposing a direction. The directions envisioned by the Chinese, Americans, French, Germans and Soviets cannot differ; they need a single direction. I am planning to establish this, and that is why I am bringing scholars and asking them to lead, and I'm asking the media organizations to report on them.