This Friday, 29th November 2019, Aid to the Church in Need (Malta) will play host to Mr. John Pontifex, a renowned UK Journalist and Head of Press & Information for Aid to the Church in Need (UK) who will be the Keynote Speaker at the Launch of ACN’s “Persecuted and Forgotten? A Report on Christians oppressed for their Faith 2017-19.”
In his 17 years working with Aid to the Church in Need, John has travelled widely in Africa, Asia and the Middle East – carrying out fact-finding visits to countries including Pakistan, India, China, Sudan, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Cuba, Iraq, Israel and Palestine. He has travelled to Syria every year for the last four years.
He has investigated human rights violations especially relating to Christians and other faith minorities. He has visited towns and villages where persecution has taken place, interviewing both survivors and Church leaders.
His visit to Malta to speak at the Launch of this report is in line with his work to raise awareness of the plight of persecuted Christians and faith groups, both within the media, the political classes and other opinion informers. John is a regular media contributor on the topic of persecuted Christians and has been interviewed several times by the BBC, Sky News, as well as Catholic and other Christian media both in the UK and in countries around
The report, which he founded in 2006 and which he has edited on a biennial basis ever since, assesses the scale of violence and discrimination in core countries around the world. The 2019 edition of Persecuted and Forgotten? reflects on the work John and other ACN colleagues contributed for the 2019 Bishop of Truro’s Report for the UK Foreign Secretary on UK Foreign & Commonwealth Office Support for Persecuted Christians.
