This is a very complicated question to answer. In its essence journalism as a field ought to aspire for objectivity. In any field of interest be it conflict, corruption, education objectivity is a must in order for the public to have an 'educated' opinion. Unfortunately few are the times where journalism actually reaches objectivity. I come from Israel, but I lived away for several years and came back a year ago. Before leaving Israel I was very patriotic on the one hand but growing up in the environment I did, I also opened up to different opinions. My mum is German; she used to work for the German tv RTL news. For many years I was hanging around the foreign press but at the same time I had an uncle serving the IDF; I had the chance to view the conflict from both sides, I had the opportunity to open up to the pro Israeli view and at the same time I was also in-tuned to the pro Palestinian view. While being away I had to adjust to a new reality, where suddenly I had Palestinian class mates; they were not my enemy any longer, the opposite, they became my friends. When I was away objectivity was easier to achieve; I distanced myself from my nation to such an extreme that I did not relate to the reality I was living not too long before. Now Im back and although I am trying to stay objective, it is much harder than I thought. I think that the paradox of journalism is that in order to report something you have to become part of this something and while becoming part of this something you instantly take a side. As an example journalists who are based in Israel; they are not Israelis, they are not Palestinians either but in order to report from here they have to live here and thus become a part of the reality they report; meaning they have to be on the one or the other side...
Thus; objectivity is something we have to aspire to especially while taking the job of a journalist but it is not always so easy to achieve.

Can journalists be objective? I have tried to repeat to myself , yes we should but can we in a world where the job of a journalist is becoming very risky. Even in a small island in the indian ocean, some journalists have once been imprisonned for having spoken against the government and from this point of view, we might think that we are living in a world where journalists have lost the freedom of their pen. We are proned to think that we are living in a world where our pen is afraid to comment on politics. All journalists should be protected and be assured to tell what they really want to tell without the fear of writing. If we journalists are afraid to write, who would inform the public but indeed it is better in this sense not to write if we are asked to be subjective.Who in this world could stop us from saying things if not some editor will for fear of having problems simply discard the news?Don't forget it is our writing that feeds us with food and the population with news.If we are not objective, it simply means we are offending our profession which is a gift to say things and have the ability to do so through our talent.We should fight to be objective, no matter how tough is the political pressure which is trying to prevent us from informing the population about what they should not know. Let stay objective for the sake of our profession:Journalism. Nazma FOURRE

It is conceivable for a journalist to be balanced and objective in their reporting. It is the matter of training and acquired discipline. What is most difficult in maintaining objectivity is catering for organizational policies depending on who you work for, peer pressure, and above all else keeping the balance between professional integrity and your superiors' views if they differ from yours. Tact and doplomacy often works if patience is exercised, but in a work environment where aggressive ideology prevails, a dignified journalist has no choice but resign.

In my country Uganda, we even have a ministry of disaster and preparedness, but what they do is provide blankets and little food to disaster victims. Why not try to avoid/ reduce disaster and/ or its implications???

It's sad that people die and/or loose their valuables due to negligence of authorities. Look at what is happening in China with the existance of modern detecting technologies in the world.

The world is only interested in fighting wars, which help them expose their "mighty power" to the poor population.

Kampala- Uganda

According to Machiavelli, man is always selfish and greedy!!! So objectivity is very difficult to be attained by man, but journalist should avoid being soo biased. It's a journalist's duty to expose relevant information to the population in a correct and un biased form.

Kampala- Uganda

Yes there is such a thing as objectivity but it is not easy to achieve. Objectivity for me means being fair and balanced in our reports but as human beings, we are influnced by a whole range of things we sometimes dont have control over.

We all Myanmar people in trouble. Naturasl Disaster,Nargis and man-made disaster Junta faced us. I'm in sad mood and may you all help us?

i feel that as a journalist you are given the privalage of having freedom of speech. i also feel that you should be very open minded and say what ever it is that you feel and also be very blunt and don't sugar coat any thing

well it sounds romantic of being objective in reporting event... ya anyone is justified to call some reports objective but the matter there is that he is a third person to the developments.... and anything more he is "liable" to affiliation and "liable" to deviation...
objectivity is a bit more compromised the way things are handled in the "global" environment. i.e. "you are with us or against us". the poles are getting more specified in this world and to be objective needs a journalist experiance and inhumane to the society or the case, that he reports. but to minimize the difference between objectivity and non objectivity is to 1-avoid personal opinion 2-strive and add all details available. 3-include views of the people involved immediately with the event...rather than be selective.. maturity and experiance itself brings u close to objectivity....
case of unjournalsitic behavior in pakistan media...... the red mosque operation...during the crisis the anchors were working as mediators between the government and red mosque students.... were trying hard to settle it with media anchors will.... take care

A journalist must put all personal feelings aside and approach any report within the principles of reporting and journalism ethics. He/she must present a fair comment while presenting, fairly, the views of all the parties to to the issue. Anything short of this is short of objectivity.

I prefer to think of objectivity as applying to method rather than the investigator's attitude. We might not be able to put aside our personal prejudices, but we can gather facts and apply rules of evidence in an open, transparent way that can be replicated by others. Think of it as evidence-based journalism -- or applying scientific method to the practice of journalism.

Philip Meyer USA

The concept of objectivity remains controversial in modern journalism. It has been argued that objectivity exists more in theory than in practice. This is because journalists, like any other persons in the society, have their own view of issues at hand in the social environment. We may not want to divorce journalists from their society and I stand to be corrected. My view is that in as much as we may not be objective in reporting events and issues, much effort should be directed at minimizing biases. It is often through fair and balanced reporting that even conflicts are resolved. Mark Oloo, Kenya (markoloo@yahoo.com)

Objectivity in journalism as defined by Merriam Webster, "expressing or dealing with facts or conditions as perceived without distortion by personal feelings, prejudices, or interpretations. This is practically impossible for human beings to do. Whatever decision we take is substantially influenced by who we are and things we expose ourselves to, why we do certain things or refuse to do etc. Therefore, only God can be 100 percent objective. What every journalist should strive to do is to be fair, listen to both sides and try hard to detach himself from the story.

Nasiru L. Abubakar is a journalist based in Nigeria's capital, Abuja.

I may be wrong, but I thought we buried that as a non-issue a long, long time ago as in "of course no human is 'objective'" with the most we could hope for as professional, fair, careful and honest (which is already quite a lot).

I think, this objectivity can never be fully achieved as Journalists are also part of this society and have their relationships, own point of view and sometimes associations that contributes in making a news. Also gender plays a very important role in the process of Objectivity as each member views the event with the gender lens.

It is difficult for any journalist to be totally objective. Nevertheless,journalists must strive to be as objective as possible. objectivity can be seen as a goal. Without the goal,the field will be worse for it. JIDE JIMOH LAGOS STATE UNIVERSITY JOURNALISM DEPT NIGERIA

Actually, this made me think about a question as an answer the question: How objective could the social sciences be? Journalism reporting can be as objective as possible through reporting the stuborn facts from the field.....but most of the issues are with with the media organizations more than reporters who could be identified as "fair" and objective. But their organization may have a different point of view... Nabila