Noor-e-Hira
Peace journalism, first coined by Johan Galtung, involves an academic form of transformative and reflexive journalism of prioritizing constructive resolution, humanizing all parties involved, and seeing the real causes of conflicts, as opposed to the traditional paradigm of war journalism that tends to point to binary winners and losers. The aims of peace journalism are to build on knowledge, generate non-violent options and also preempt the stories of peacekeeping agents and as such, peace journalism is a source of dialogue building that focuses on the points of intersection and systemic upheavals which perpetrate conflict. This point of view applies specifically in areas where long-term adversarial activities have occurred like the South Asian zone where media reporting often fuels the clash because of biased or distortionary reporting.
The media industry of the South Asian environment (particularly Pakistan-India nexus) is inseparably connected with the historical enmity such as Kashmir crisis, cross border terrorism and nuclear arms race. In Pakistan as an example, media faces internal insurgencies like the Taliban trouble and Baloch nationalist militancy where in reporting, it will either reinforce fracturing or foster reconciliation. Peace-oriented media campaigns are the instruments that have proved to be very important amid such provocations and they operationalize the principles of peace journalism in concrete situations. This essay assesses such campaigns, with a focus on Aman ki Asha, and lessons in methodology can be derived on the results and flaws of such campaigns thus highlighting the ability of the media to play a peacebuilding role and shedding light on the long-term structural barriers.
Peace journalism has its foundation on a series of ontological and epistemological principles that re-assemble the conflict coverage process based on the themes of inclusivity, voice, and systemic criticism. Galtung has placed peace journalism within the framework of war journalism by promoting participation of all sides of the case and listening to voiceless and exposing behind the scenes cultural plans instead of demonizing an opponent. It focuses on active investigation of the non-violent solutions, including economic affiliation and cultural interchange, without being pompous with elite propaganda. This is as expressed in its practical sense the shift of reactive coverage of violence to the humanizing narratives where affected populations are humanized and the sense of empathy is felt.
Applied to modern media metrics these principles challenge the magnification of divisions which is characteristic of traditional reporting. Outlets also often give prominence to the views of elites or sensational happenings in the conflict environment hence fanning the flames of revenge. A counterpoint is included by peace journalism by leveraging the heterogeneous voices such as women, youth, and marginalized groups of people and questioning structural violence such as poverty or inequality that is contributing to overt conflicts. This goes to social space in the digital age where hating speech can be counteracted by promoting peace stories strategically.
Media space in South Asia challenges these ideals in the context of state regulation and censorship. An example of this is the Pakistani journalists, which are limited by military influences that restrict the use of the peace-oriented framings. Training programs are effective, however: a post-workshop follow-up showed that there was an increment in balanced reporting and increase in peace quotient in articles that made attempts to foreground reconciliation rather than blame. This empirical evidence attests to the fact that, in reality, peace journalism is operational and capable of defusing media- based tensions.
There are myriads of phenomena in the regional media milieu that fuel conflicts and therefore keep peace journalism campaigns relevant. The Pakistani reports of the Taliban insurgency often fit the type of war journalism in the sense that they place the focus on military actions, their consequences and COIN operations and downplay the human suffering on civilian or diplomatic talks. In the same manner the Baloch rebellion is also discussed in terms of pure security, hiding grievances about resource exploitation and the abuse of human rights. Nationalism impact also creates a dichotomous us versus them discourse that leads to a worsening of ethnic divides and hindering constructive communication.
In the subcontinent, the India-Pakistan relations are exaggerated by the jingoistic expression of reporting that gives rise to mobilization of hostility over border skirmishes or terrorism attacks. At the same time, social media also contributes to this, spreading hate-speeches and misinformation, to the point of enhancing offline violence- a phenomenon which can be seen in the development of online extremism in the region. Regulatory reactions by regional governments are supposed to check extremity but instead they tend to stifle free speech thus restraining the peace advocacy that would otherwise be possible through the media.
Peace journalism comes in to correct the framing of disputable matters. The Pakistani sources sometimes use the visual narrative of peace – pictures of compromising demonstrators against terrorism – that make actors human and that emphasize the communal stability. The responsible journalism campaign is carried out by national forums and workshops, where the media is promoted as the instrument of peace by educating on the peace plans of government. However, this is not the case since other issues are sensationalism and organizational corruption, which undermines trust among people as the latest literature in the field of governance suggests. (34) Generation Z digital activism (as was the case with Nepalese acts of protests or Bangladeshi acts of protests) shines light on the dual ability of social media as it creates a solidarity, but it can also promote superficiality with no positive change. It follows that digital activism is a trap as well as an opportunity to the peace-oriented media.
Aman ki Asha, or Hope of Peace is a real world practice of peace journalism in action. The campaign was initiated in 2010 by the Times of India collaboration with the Jang Group and aimed to foster Indo Punkistani reconciliation based on the people to people encounter and against a history of hostility. In line with Galtung tenets, the program shifted loss of focus over war to cultural commonality through holding festivals, seminars and exchanges in the arenas of health, economic, cultural and policies. A content analysis showed that positive aspects were predominant in focus: the concept of health as a sign of peace, the economic interdependence as a stabilizing system, and the aspect of cultural engagements as a stereotype-deconstructing system. This is the strategic framing which is akin to the commonality and community emphasis of peace journalism when compared to focus on conflict.
The campaign had both positive and effects that were sequential. At local scales the order of youth exchanges and led discussions promoted interpersonal insights. There were certain sub-initiatives like Milne Do (Let Them Meet), which led to a visa relaxation agreement in 2012, which relaxed travel between the countries. The media reporting enhanced the accounts of brotherhood, which in turn applied influence in the diplomatic relationship and cooperation in policy development on the mid-range level. According to internal surveys conducted by Jang Group, it was shown that people were more hungry to be at peace; it is evidenced that the media was effective in portraying perceptional change.
However, constraints were perceived. The project was shut down in 2014 with specific attacks on the Jang organisation by the Pakistan Army and the worsening of the Indo-Pak relations within the Indian republic of the Modi government. The reports lacked a certain depth on the views of citizens and also chose to ignore the part about controversial subjects, and therefore were a contradiction of the full peace journalism ideals. Sustainability was hampered by constraints in political will, civilmilitary power imbalance and unfavourable media framing. Lessons are therefore critical to emphasise the need to have institutional backing, economic incorporation and, digital augmentation to maintain strength. Aman-ki-Asha serves as an exemplar of cultural diplomacy by illustrating how the media can, despite the potential triggering of a further conflict, deescalate it through the framing of posts or texts, which should be cautionary.
Further information on Aman ‫ki ‫Asha ‫Outside of Aman ‫ki ‫Asha, increased programs including the Social Media ‫Peace by UNESCO offer frameworks suitable to South Asia. This program, even though not implemented in Pakistan, enhances opposition to disinformation and hate speech by creating capacity and conducting mass campaigns to build multi-stakeholder resilience. The concerted actions within the territory towards fighting online hate, including workshops within the frames of South Asian setting, facilitate tolerance and media literacy.
Additional teaching examples are provided in digital activism. The case of Gen-Z uprisings in Nepal and Bangladesh represents the phenomenon of cross-border solidarity and knowledge sharing through social media. However, these movements are faced by such limitations like government crack downs and the danger of short-lived effects. South Asian civic defiance demonstrates how crucial technology is to the process of organizing nonviolence mobilization and how a lack of underlying offline interaction is necessary.
Media campaigns like Aman kii Asha show that peace journalism is capable of humanizing conflict and promoting dialogue and this depends upon political support and critical reporting. The lessons gained in Pakistan and the rest of the South Asian region contribute to the understanding that the press needs to be held responsible as well as be free of speech, use digital means to combat hate, and continue its programmes once the initial excitement has died out. Finally, media should transform itself into a reinforcer of peace rather than a conflict somewhere through its development as key to long-term peace in the region.
