War and Peace Journalism: The Role of Local and International Media during the Intra-Afghan Peace Talks

Yıl 2025, Cilt: 4 Sayı: 1, 89 - 112, 30.06.2025

Sami Qayumi , Md Nazmul Islam

Öz

The former government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan (hereinafter referred to as the Islamic Republic) and the Islamic Taliban Movement (hereinafter referred to as the Taliban) attached great deal of importance to media coverage of the intra-Afghan peace negotiations (can also be called Doha peace talks) that took place in Doha, the capital of the State of Qatar, between September 2020 and August 2021. They, for their part, claimed that the local media in particular had been taking sides and disseminating propaganda throughout the peace negotiations. This comparative case study has used mixed method to elaborate on how the local and international media covered Doha peace talks on Afghanistan. Using John Galtung’s model of peace and war journalism as its theoretical framework, this article analysed 229 stories—including news articles, roundtables, interviews, and Op-Eds—published on the English websites of TOLOnews, CNN, and Al Jazeera during the peace negotiations. Consequently, it was revealed that though the war journalism continued to be the predominant reporting approach for all selected media outlets, TOLOnews, as a local media, relatively deployed peace journalism compared to CNN and Al Jazeera, two worldwide major media outlets. Finally, it is recommended to explore why local media, despite being directly affected by the conflict, failed to adequately apply peace journalism in their coverage of the intra-Afghan peace negotiations.

Anahtar Kelimeler

Peace Journalism , War Journalism , Intra-Afghan Peace Talks , Local Media

Savaş ve Barış Gazeteciliği: Afganistan Barış Görüşmeleri Sürecinde Yerel ve Uluslararası Medyanın Rolü

Öz

The former government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan (hereinafter referred to as the Islamic Republic) and the Islamic Taliban Movement (hereinafter referred to as the Taliban) attached great deal of importance to media coverage of the intra-Afghan peace negotiations (can also be called Doha peace talks) that took place in Doha, the capital of the State of Qatar, between September 2020 and August 2021. They, for their part, claimed that the local media in particular had been taking sides and disseminating propaganda throughout the peace negotiations. This comparative case study has used mixed method to elaborate on how the local and international media covered Doha peace talks on Afghanistan. Using John Galtung’s model of peace and war journalism as its theoretical framework, this article analysed 229 stories—including news articles, roundtables, interviews, and Op-Eds—published on the English websites of TOLOnews, CNN, and Al Jazeera during the peace negotiations. Consequently, it was revealed that though the war journalism continued to be the predominant reporting approach for all selected media outlets, TOLOnews, as a local media, relatively deployed peace journalism compared to CNN and Al Jazeera, two worldwide major media outlets. Finally, it is recommended to explore why local media, despite being directly affected by the conflict, failed to adequately apply peace journalism in their coverage of the intra-Afghan peace negotiations.

Anahtar Kelimeler

Peace Journalism , War Journalism , Intra-Afghan Peace Talks , Local Media

Kaynakça

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