تلخیص
Drawing on my trade experiences as a local journalist reporting on the Pashtun Belt—a war-torn Pak-Afghan
borderland—this paper problematizes the concept of journalistic objectivity. Working for national and
international media, local Pashtun reporters are the only source of connecting their war-torn ethnic community to
the world. But reporting here poses a dilemma. Not only these journalists face threats from state and non-state
actors, but adherence to objectivity also alienates them from their community. The paper argues that instrumental
objectivity forces the local ethnic reporters to present news-data in a top-down fashion, and also hinders them
from feeling the pain of their own community. Offering self-reflective approach as an alternative to conflict
reporting, this paper gives primacy to occupational experience over technical rationality.