KARACHI: “Is the age of objective journalism over?” This was the question addressed by award-winning journalist and author Zahid Hussain at a lecture here on Tuesday.

Speaking at the Razia Bhatti Memorial Lecture-2025, held at the Centre for Excellence in Journalism, Institute of Business Administration (CEJ-IBA), he described the late journalist as a perfectionist from whom colleagues learned what objective journalism meant.

Hussain, who worked with Razia Bhatti at Herald and Newsline, said: “She wanted to have all the facts correct,” he said, adding that working with Razia was a time when they learned to be professional journalists.

He explained that objective journalism means presenting all the facts and allowing readers or the audience to form their own conclusions.

Veteran journalist Zahid Hussain pays tribute to late Razia Bhatti

“Over the years, we have witnessed a kind of deterioration in objective journalism. It is a challenging time for journalists now, but we have also seen tough times before. For example, during Ziaul Haq’s regime, there was a period when they would just pull a story from the newspaper page and leave a blank space there,” Hussain recalled.

He noted that despite such challenges, journalists still managed to report the truth. He shared several examples of this. For example, when in 1983 Benazir Bhutto was being sent abroad for health reasons, they had wanted her on the cover of Herald, which didn’t happen. “However, we wrote everything in the story inside,” he said.

“Similarly, in 1986, her return to Pakistan was our cover story but she could not be on the cover. The compromise was that we could have her picture on the cover but with five or six other politicians, who were less significant. Still, there was no compromise on the content inside,” he added.

About what is happening now with most newspapers, he said that if you picked up any, you would find hardly any difference between opinion and reporting.

“The reporting should not have opinions. But here you find the opinion of not just the reporter but also the editors in a report, which has also led to deterioration in reporting. Journalists have become the spokespersons of some lobby or institution,” he pointed out.

“And if you look at the electronic media, most of the talk shows are the same. There is no journalism there,” he remarked.

“Earlier, journalists used to get instruction from the Press Department. But it comes to them directly from ISPR now. Sometimes, they even cut a live show midway during transmission,” he noted. “The same is the case with newspapers, most of which totally depend on government advertisements for revenue.”

Despite these challenges, he acknowledged that some professional journalism still exists. However, he warned that the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act (Peca) has made it even harder. “Under Peca, anything the government deems unlawful can lead to three-year imprisonment. So, there is hardly any journalism left,” he stated.

The senior journalist also said that for some 30 years, he has also worked with international media “where there is freedom and no such restrictions like in Pakistan. But is it objective journalism? I will have to say that I cannot be sure about that,” he added.

For instance, in the United States, he said that there are unspoken restrictions as non-partisan journalism is also not entirely there. He shared several examples such as his having the scoop that Raymond Davis was not a diplomat but a CIA agent, which The Wall Street Journal would not publish. Even when he filed the story for Time magazine, that bit was taken out. When he asked why, he was told that the White House had instructed them to do so.

He also reminded how when the Bush Administration needed an excuse to invade Iraq, it was reported in The New York Times that Iraq was making weapons of mass destruction for which they later published an apology stating that the story lacked sufficient facts. “But the damage had been done,” he sighed.

“But the worst thing to happen to journalism was how the Gaza war was covered in foreign media. It was so biased,” he said. “For instance, you had protests against the atrocities in Gaza, which were reported by the BBC as ‘pro Hamas rallies!”

Earlier, senior journalist and author Umber Khairi, a member of the Razia Bhatti Memorial Initiative and co-founder of Newsline, said that the annual Razia Bhatti Memorial Lecture is a tribute to one of the finest journalists, the late Razia Bhatti.

Published in Dawn, February 12th, 2025