“If you are a Catholic, and that is what you are doing, I am very disappointed in you. Because that is not what you are supposed to do,” he stated, advocating for constructive journalism, added, “Yes, you are doing your job, but you are doing it wrongly. Report properly, report factually, and be constructive.”
The Catholic Church leader, who started his Episcopal Ministry in January 2011 as Auxiliary Bishop of Zambia’s Chipata Diocese, warned media practitioners against spreading harmful information or seeking “fame” at the expense of harmony and genuine public interest.
“Your newspaper or your radio station or TV may become famous, because you are good at making people sad. You are also going to receive your own judgment,” he cautioned.
Archbishop Phiri warned, “If there is social unrest and people die, the blood is on your head. Because you are the one who misrepresented things and made people to arouse their emotions so that to the extent of killing each other, you are responsible.”
In his June 29 homily, the Zambian Catholic Archbishop, who has been at the helm of Ndola Archdiocese since June 2024 also cautioned the people of God in the South African nation against allowing differences in ideology to lead them to violence.
"Now we are going towards elections. I know we are mainly here for different beliefs and ideologies," he said, and emphasized that while ideologies and political differences are not fundamentally bad, they should be pursued "in accordance with the will of God."
He lamented the consequences of ideological differences, particularly during the electioneering period, especially how they have been behind violent conflict, injury, and even loss of life among individuals who profess the same faith.
“This one believes in that way, another believes something else, and suddenly we are beating each other, even killing each other. How foolish can one get? We are all worshipping the same God,” he said.
The 66-year-old Catholic Church leader questioned the eternal value of political ideologies: “Is an ideology going to take you to heaven? And there you are, fighting each other, killing each other, trampling on each other, because of some ideology. You have missed it.”
“If what you do is against the will of God, salvation will not be yours. I'm saying this because we who are Christians, at times we talk too much and so much about Christianity, but our hearts are so far away from each other and from God,” he said.
