Untamed Subjectivity upon Blasphemy: Comparative Subjectivity of the National and International English and National Urdu Print Media upon Reporting A Blasphemy Case in Pakistan
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Keywords

Blasphemy, Objectivity of news, Subjectivity in news, sources of information, print journalism

Abstract

Objectivity of news have always been a debate, even the trusted source of information, the newspapers are not ‘clean’ so to say. Contrary to the codes of neat journalism, news reports are often found reflecting ideological, economic, regional, religious and pre-determined viewpoints. In the current study the researcher has purposely picked the blasphemy case of Aasiya Bibi from year 2010 involving Salman Taseer (late), then the Governor of Punjab and Mumtaz Qadri (late) the member of elite police force who shot Mr.Taseer and was later hanged in 2016. The researcher analyzed level of subjectivity in the news stories and editorial of two international and three national newspapers, The Guardian, The New York Time and The Dawn, Daily Jang and the Daily Express respectively. Through the scientific method of analyzing the content it is observed that in such cases, even the pioneers of print medium and the self-proclaimed champions of the codes of journalism are found overwhelmingly subjective.

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