The pontiff held his first meeting with the news media at the Vatican and called on reporters to choose “the path of communication in favor of peace.”

Pope Leo XIV called for a kinder, gentler mass media, one that speaks up for those with no voice and in defense of free speech, and urged regimes around the world that jail journalists to set them free.

Leo is the first pope with a pre-papal social media presence, which helps paint an early picture of his positions on various cultural issues.