REPORTING KASHMIR An analysis of the conflict coverage in Indian and Pakistani newspapers Chindu Sreedharan A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of Bournemouth University for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy March 2009 COPYRIGHT STATEMENT This copy of the thesis has been supplied on condition that anyone who consults it is understood to recognise that its copyright rests with its author and due acknowledgement must always be made of the use of any material contained in, or derived from, it. ABSTRACT The news media are considered a significant force in conflict situations, capable of influencing antagonists and their actions. Whether this influence is constructive or destructive is determined by the nature of journalism presented to the warring sides. News content that holds the other side responsible for the strife and focuses on violence is likely to exacerbate the situation. Sustained reportage on the possibilities and need for peace, on the other hand, could contribute to a political climate suited for peace negotiations. This India-centric study examines the Kashmir conflict in this context. While the coverage of more recent conflicts such as the Gulf Wars and the ‘War on Terror’ in Afghanistan has evoked sustained scrutiny from media scholars, there is little empirical work on the news on Kashmir. The objective here is to profile the nature of coverage the Indian and Pakistani press accorded the conflict, which could provide an empirical foundation for future discussions and research on Kashmir. Selected news reportage of 10 major events that appeared in two national Indian newspapers and one Pakistani daily is examined for this purpose. By utilising an original coding scheme that draws on conflict journalism, media effects and agenda-setting theories, this study arrives at an indicative overview of the journalism on Kashmir presented to the two publics over the years. The analysis is more reliant on what appeared in the Indian press, and has been contextualised by data drawn from personal interviews with Indian policymakers. Hence it is largely from an Indian perspective. However, the inquiry provides insights into the Pakistani coverage as well. The conclusion, based on patterns that emerged from the news presented to the two warring societies, is that the coverage was vigorously government-led and intensely ‘negative’. ii Contents Acknowledgements……………………………………………………….vii Why. What. How…………………………………………………1 Introduction Media, the ‘force-multiplier’…………………………………………………………….3 Objectives………………………………………………………………………………..7 Research strategy………………………………………………………………………...9 The ‘I’ factor: research biases…………………………………………………………..10 Organisation of the thesis……………………………………………………………….12 Chapter 1 Birth of a conflict………………………………………………...15 A historical perspective 1.1 | The rule of Jammu……………………………………………………………….....16 1.2 | The Sheikh Abdullah era…………………………………………………………...21 1.3 | The decade of ‘dirty’ politics……………………………………………………….24 1.4 | Two decades of conflict…………………………………………………………….28 1.4.1 | The first decade…………………………………………………………..28 1.4.2 | The second decade……………………………………………………….31 1.5 | Kashmir in perspective…………………………………………………………......35 Chapter 2 Media at war……………………………………………………..39 Review of literature 2.1 | Conflict, its dynamics………………………………………………………………40 2.1.1 | Intractable conflict……………………………………………………….41 2.2 | The Effects Question…………………………………………………………….....43 2.2.1 | Agenda-setting, priming, framing…………………………………….....44 2.2.2 | Conflict, the public, and conflict politics………………………………..47 2.2.3 | Chinks in the ‘effects’ armour…………………………………………...48 2.2.4 | Cultivation analysis……………………………………………………...50 2.3 | Ethnocentrism……………………………………………………………………....51 2.3.2 | War, media, and the ‘other’……………………………………...............54 2.4 | Going to the ‘hostilities’…….……………………………………………………...59 2.5 | The subjectivity of objectivity……………………………………………………...60 2.5.1 | News, a social construct…………………………………………………61 2.5.2 | News, a strategic ritual…………………………………………………..62 iii 2.5.3 | Objectivity, an ideal……………………………………………………..63 2.5.4 | Objectivity, its biases……………………………………………………64 2.5.5 | Desirability of objectivity……………………………………………….65 2.5.6 | Objectivity and reporting conflicts……………………………………...66 2.6 | Peace Journalism…………………………………………………………………...67 2.7 | Effects of conflict coverage: a composite model…………………………………..72 2.7.1 | Four media influences…………………………………………………...73 2.7.2 | The politics-media-politics cycle………………………………………..75 2.7.3 | The Principle of Unintended Consequences…………………………….76 2.8 | Realigning conflict journalism……………………………………………………..78 2.9 | Intractable Kashmir………………………………………………………………...79 Chapter 3 Kashmir mediatised……………………………………………...81 Overview of Indian, Pakistani news coverage 3.1 | The mediascape of India and Pakistan..…………………………………………....83 3.2 | The press in India and Pakistan………………………………………………….....87 3.3 | Centrality of the English press…..…………………………………………………89 3.4 | The press and Kashmir……………………………………………………………...92 3.4.1 | Press in Kashmir…………………………………………………………92 3.4.2 | Press in Pakistan…………………………………………………………96 3.4.3 | Press in India……………………………………………………………100 3.5 | One story, two narratives………………………………………………………….106 3.6 | Media performance in India: a critique……………………………………………107 3.6.1 | The human element in reportage……………………………………......111 3.6.2 | The Delhi-Srinagar relation…………………………………………….114 3.7 | ‘Journalists compromised’………………………………………………………...116 3.8 | Media content and the public……………………………………………………...119 Chapter 4 Analysing Kashmir coverage…………………………………...121 Methodology 4.1 | Preliminary research questions……………………………………………………122 4.2 | Pre-testing content………………………………………………………………...123 4.3 | Content analysis: a crossover……………………………………………………..126 4.3.1 | Coding unit……………………………………………………………..127 4.3.2 | CP and NCP……………………………………………………………127 4.3.3 | Role of NCPs…………………………………………………………..128 4.3.4 | Qualifiers………………………………………………………………129 4.3.5 | Main themes…………………………………………………………...130 4.3.6 | Categorising themes…………………………………………………...133 4.3.7 | Active and passive subcategories……………………………………...137 4.3.8 | Quantifying content……………………………………………………138 4.3.9 | Overall Unit Value…………………………………………………….140 iv 4.3.10 | Overall Story Value………………………………………………….140 4.3.11 | Coding for sources…………………………………………………...141 4.3.12 | Applying the coding scheme………………………………………....143 4.3.13 | Coding for prominence………………………………………………145 4.4 | Coding scheme, in summary……………………………………………………..146 4.5 | Research questions revisited……………………………………………………..147 4.6 | Two-stage coding………………………………………………………………...149 4.7 | Sampling and other parameters…………………………………………………..150 4.7.1 | Parameter 1: Three newspapers………………………………………..150 4.7.2 | Parameter 2: 10 events…………………………………………………151 4.7.3 | Parameter 3: Front page news………………………………………….157 4.8 | Intra- and inter-coder agreements…………………………………………………157 4.9 | Terminology and definitions……………………………………………………....158 4.10 | Retrospection…………………………………………………………………….160 Chapter 5 Kashmir in war and peace………………………………………162 Findings 5.1 | Proportion of anti-peace and pro-peace news……………………………………..164 5.1.1 | Anti-peace stories in peacetime coverage………………………………164 5.1.2 | Pro-peace stories in wartime coverage………………………………….170 5.1.3 | Neutral stories…………………………………………………………..172 5.2 | Intensity of anti-peace and pro-peace news……………………………………….175 5.2.1 | Most used anti-peace themes…………………………………………...176 5.2.2 | Absent anti-peace themes in Delhi talks………………………………..178 5.2.3 | Most used pro-peace themes……………………………………………179 5.2.4 | Anti-peace and pro-peace I-SCORE: a comparison……………………181 5.3 | AP versus PP coverage: comparison across the border…………………………...185 5.4 | News slots: anti-peace versus pro-peace…………………………………………..186 5.4.1 | The drama of breakthrough……………………………………………..188 5.4.2 | The conflict in peace……………………………………………………190 5.4.3 | Drama of breakthrough and conflict in peace…………………………..193 5.5 | Sources of news: who said what…………………………………………………..193 5.5.1 | Anti-peace statements dominate………………………………………..194 5.5.2 | Reliance on government sources……………………………………….197 5.5.3 | News slots for own government………………………………………..199 5.5.4 | The ‘other’ perspective…………………………………………………200 5.5.5 | Separatists and other sources…………………………………………...203 5.6 | The ‘other’………………………………………………………………………...200 5.6.1 | Sourced representation and media statements………………………….208 5.6.2 | Intensity of representation……………………………………………...209 5.6.3 | How prominent?....……………………………………………………..211 5.6.4 | Representation across the newspapers…………………………………212 5.6.5 | The story qualifiers tell………………………………………………...214 5.6.6 | Qualifiers and political environment…………………………………..217 5.6.7 | Qualifiers in Dawn and HT…………………………………………….217 v Bad news………………………………………………………..219 Conclusion Nature of Kashmir coverage…………………………………………………………....220 Profile of the ‘other’.…….………………………………………………………..……225 Kashmir and the coverage……………………………………………………………...228 Implications for journalists, policymakers……………………………………………..231 Final reflections: return to journalism……………………………………………….....237 Endnotes…………………………………………………………………..243 References………………………………………………………………...252 Appendices………………………………………………………………..266 Appendix 1: List of interviewees and questions……………………………………266 Appendix 2: Coding category details…………………………………………………...271 vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS IN THE FIVE years of my academic struggle with the Kashmir conflict, I drew on the goodwill of many, many people. This could run into pages if I attempted to name all of them, but there are some