Afghan Refugees, Pakistani Media and the State: The Missing Peace

BOOK LAUNCH

Drawing on the frameworks of peace and conflict journalism, this book offers new insights into the Pakistani media coverage of Afghan refugees and their forced repatriation from Pakistan. Based on a three-year-study, the author examines the political, social and economic forces that influence and govern the reporting practices of journalists covering the protracted refugee conflict between Pakistan and Afghanistan. 

Through a critical discourse analysis of the structures of journalistic iterability of Afghan refugees in Pakistan, the author distils four dominant and three emerging frames, and proposes a new teleological turn for peace journalism as deliberative practice, that is to say practice that by promoting transparency and accountability (recognition) and challenging dominant power-proposed narratives and perspectives (resistance) encourages public engagement and participation (cosmopolitan solidarity). The author also privileges an analytical approach that conceptualises the nexus between digital witnessing and peace journalism through the paradigm of cosmopolitanism. 

The author finds routinely accommodated media narratives of security that represent Afghan refugees as a ‘threat’, a ‘burden’ and the ‘other’ that, through reinforcement, have become an incontestable reality for the public in Pakistan. This book will appeal to those interested in studying and practicing journalism as a conscientious communicative practice that elicits the very public it seeks to inform.　

Author: Ayesha Jehangir

Ayesha is a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow with the UTS Centre for Media Transition. She holds a PhD in peace and conflict journalism from the School of the Arts, English and Media at the University of Wollongong. Ayesha’s research focuses on mediated narratives of peace and conflict, with a focus on peace and humanitarian journalism, human suffering and social justice, digital activism and the refugee voice. Ayesha is also co-secretary of Journalism Education and Research Association of Australia, and an Associate Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. Prior to joining academia, Ayesha worked as a journalist in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Germany. 

Keynote: Saba Bebawi

Saba is Head of the Journalism and Writing discipline in the School of Communication at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS). Bebawi has published on the role of media policy and new technologies in democracy-building and peace-making initiatives, with a focus on journalism in conflict and post-conflict regions. Bebawi is author of ‘Media Power and Global Television News: The role of Al Jazeera English’ (2016); ‘Investigative Journalism in the Arab World: Issues and Challenges’ (2016); and co-author of ‘The Future Foreign Correspondent’ (2019); in addition to co-editor of ‘Social Media and the Politics of Reportage: The 'Arab Spring'’ (2014), ‘Data Journalism in the Global South’ (2020); ‘Different Global Journalisms: Cultures and Contexts’ (2023); 'The Routledge Companion to Journalism and the Global South' (2023), and 'Hybrid Investigative Journalism' (2024). She is also co-editor for the book series ‘Palgrave Studies in Journalism and the Global South’.

Speakers:

Sukhmani Khorana is a Scientia Associate Professor in the School of the Arts and Media at UNSW. She is interested in media, migration and affect and her research focuses on multi-platform refugee narratives, the politics of food, the role of emotions in social change, cultural diversity in media and culture, and self-representation by young people of colour.  Through her research, Sukhmani aims to create broader awareness about the lives of asylum seekers and refugees and contribute to the capacity-building of disadvantaged migrant communities.

Tanja Dreher is Co-director of the Media Futures Hub at UNSW and associate professor in the School of the Arts and Media. Tanja’s research examines media and social justice through the lens of the politics of listening in the context of settler colonialism, Indigenous sovereignties, intersectionality and data justice. Tanja is also co-convenor of the UNSW Allens Hub Data Justice Research Network and Vice Chair of the Philosophy, Theory and Critique Division at the ICA.

Dr Mohib Iqbal is an Afghan-Australian researcher and community advocate. He has worked with international development agencies, global think tanks, and government agencies in both Australia and Afghanistan on the economic aspects of peace, conflict and international development with focus on South Asia and the Middle East. Mohib has published a substantial body of work through international media and academic outlets. He frequently engages with the media, offering commentary on global issues, with a particular focus on Afghanistan and the Afghan community in Australia. He has previously worked as Research Fellow at Institute for Economics and Peace in Sydney, where he was leading research on the economic impact of conflict and violence.