Drawing on the frameworks of peace journalism, this book offers new insights into the Pakistani media coverage of Afghan refugees and their forced repatriation from Pakistan. I examine the political, social and economic forces that influence and govern the reporting practices of journalists covering the protracted refugee conflict between Pakistan and Afghanistan. I developed original framing taxonomies for analysing representations of war, conflict, and peace, advancing conceptual tools for journalism and media analysis in other contexts.
In this book, I highlight peace journalism’s teleological aspects to better fit non-Western ways of reporting war and conflict and the consequent human suffering. I redefine peace journalism as deliberative practice, tapping into the new emotionality of a common humanity. Based on my three-year analysis of framing conventions in the reporting of Afghan refugees and asylum seekers in neighbouring Pakistan, I present peace journalism as a purpose-driven practice with three teleological dimensions: recognition, resistance and solidarity, which fundamentally re-articulate the public from being merely passive viewers to a more deliberative civic audience. In creating more room for deliberation, I argue that peace journalism also creates opportunities for empathy and solidarity. I, however, acknowledge that political pressures and safety risks can compel journalists to adopt peace orientations only implicitly in their reporting and resort to, which I call, cautious peace journalism – defined as a “a safe zone where journalistic morality meets journalistic discretion under an authoritarian system of media governance” (p. 6).
Extending my PhD research, I also privilege an analytical approach to conceptualise the nexus between digital witnessing and peace journalism through the paradigm of cosmopolitan ethics, whilst also focusing on blind spots of peace journalism.
This book will appeal to those interested in studying and practicing journalism as a conscientious communicative practice that holds power accountable and elicits the very public it seeks to inform.
With Matt Gazy on the war in the UAE (14 March 2026)
In ABC News on South Asian migrants and the war in the Gulf (14 March 2026)
With Catriona Stirrat on news and the normalisation of suffering (13 March 2026)
In Conversation with Professor Lilie Chouliaraki (10 May 2024)
In Conversation with Richard Fidler (3 April 2024)