ABSTRACT
In previous chapters we discussed the importance of journalists observing professional standards of accurate reporting. As a further requirement of communicating facts in the public interest, we further argued that reporters need within practical limits to remain objective and as independent as possible and to maintain a critical distance from the events being investigated, while to the best of their ability avoiding bias and mitigating the potentially truth-diminishing effects of perspective, interpretation, and subjective relevance judgments. There is nevertheless, on top of these professional obligations, an appropriate place within journalism for the free expression of opinion in newspaper editorial columns, pages, and editorial pieces in radio and television newscasts, just as we previously noted that there is an appropriate place for entertainment in the news.
