HOW OBJECTIVE IS THE BRITISH PRESS?

The idea of objectivity in British press first started at the beginning of the 18th century. During this period, there were two political parties that were so ideologically different that there was a need for an impartial form of media that did not favour either of them. Although time has changed, this particular concept has remained to be a tradition. The concept of objectivity is difficult to define as it can be very wide but it is important to remark that:
It would appear necessary to separate the journalistic ideal of objectivity from other concepts such as impartiality, neutrality, balance and truthfulness. (Bromley,1995: 103-104).

Although many of the most important British newspapers do not consider themselves to be followers of a certain party, they can be clasified by their orientation. It is interesting to note that, a vast majority of them have opinions that are very rightist, for example, The Sun and The Daily Telegraph, whereas others like The Guardian are more leftist (ODriscoll, 1995: 153). According to Tanner (2004), British journalism, during the crisis in Northern Ireland, was more concerned with being informative about the situation than being opinionative. However, the author do not think the same about the Baltk experience. When information reaches the readers, listeners or viewers, it is supposed to be about facts that really happened, but:
The vast majority of events are not mentioned , and so selection immediately gives us a partial view of the world. We know also the different newspapers report differently, in both content and

presentation...The world of the Press is not the real world, but a world skewed and judged (Fowler, 1994).

It can be said that the basis of journalism is not only objectivity, other values, such as telling the truth, being fair, impartial and neutral are necessary in order to create a balance between the given sources and information. This is so that the evaluation can be made after the analysis of the facts rather than having a pre-conceived opinion. Journalists are people

that have their own opinions and political orientation and so, it is very difficult to inform without projecting them into their work.