Name
Mohammad Mudasir Chandio
Bs part final year
Institution
Mass communication department university of Sindh
Afghan Peace Process and Role of International Media
Afghan peace process incorporates the negotiations and proposals to end the
ceaseless war in Afghanistan. In this process, international media and regional
powers including Pakistan, China, Russia, and India as well as NATO played a
pivotal role to maintain the process enduring and successful. The war began in
2001 between the US troops and the Afghan Taliban, since then, two peace
agreements have been signed between Afghani President Ashraf Ghani and the
Hezb-i- Islami Gulbuddin group in 2016 and between the Afghan Taliban and the US
on February 29, 2020. As concerned with the 2nd treaty, international media
played a critical role by highlighting the peace process in the most positive
way.
For the “free and vibrant media”, international media agencies struggled hard on
which the Afghan government started a consultation in the amendments of free
media as it was hard to cover the entire peace process in Afghanistan due to the
Taliban’s strict actions in the country. When the cabinet approved the initial
changes in media law, it brought a restlessness among the journalists who were
considering that there would be a strict ban on the media agencies to cover the
live transmission of the whole peace process. On this, Lotfullah Najafizada, the
director of Tolo News declared,
“Afghanistan has the freest media in the entire region while being the deadliest
country for journalists globally. Such an achievement is hard-won and deserves
recognition and support, not a systematic condemnation,”
Noteworthy freedom of the press has been observed since the fall of the Taliban
in 2001. Photograph: Rahmat Gul/AP
According to reports, 2018 remained the deadliest year for the media as 15
journalists were killed in Afghanistan but thanks to the Afghan government and
the international media efforts, a significant effort has been made to eradicate
the horrible situation for the journalists so far.
Ezzatullah Mehrdad (2020) opines in his article in foreignpolicy.com that social
media is the only remedy to talk back to the Taliban where he proved that young
Afghan Taliban are embracing to go for the freedom of speech and are in favour
of free media. He further suggests that after two war decades in Afghanistan,
the new generation of Afghan is now matured enough to understand the
responsibility of free media.
It was also difficult to go for the peaceful protest in Afghanistan as in July
2016, two suicide attacks killed 83 civilians hence it was suggested by the
authorities that instead of protesting in the streets, people should use social
media to express their concerns.
Sheldon (2010) of the view that since 2001, significant and dramatic growth has
been observed in radio, television, print, internet, and mobile phones which
brought peace in the country. Instead of these media efforts in peacebuilding,
many challenges were also confronted by the Afghan media sector which draws the
attention of international media and stakeholders alike to work collectively
over the peace process through media. In addition, quality and diversity in
programming (which include the Pushto language) have also participated in
peacebuilding among the masses.
Michelle Tolson (2019) in his article published in thediplomat.com argues that
the People’s Peace Movement (PPM) in Helmand met with the Taliban in order to
convince them to stop the attacks on civilians and discuss the peace process.
The whole movement was being covered by the media agencies there in the advocacy
of the peace process on which Ahmadzai, an Afghan official said,
“There were a lot of people that joined this movement to share this voice. This
can be a good way to do advocacy for their rights. As a peacebuilder, I
appreciate this,”
On this, social media helped a lot to open out the story under the hashtags
which gained the attention of 40,000 followers.
A video of VOA (2020) interviewing the journalists’ points of views shows
clearly that there were a number of challenges faced by the media personas
especially the women journalists during this peace talk but all of them
collectively fought for the freedom of media and brought the clear and updated
process for the people around the world.
Hence, media has played a pivotal part to deliver the Afghan peace process in a
clear way and promoted the cause of peace around the world by live broadcasting
by neglecting the fact that there would be a life threat to the reporters of
international media.
References
1. "Afghan warlord Hekmatyar returns to Kabul after peace deal". BBC News. May
4, 2017.
2. theguardian
3.foreignpolicy
4. Himelfarb, S. (2010). Media and peacebuilding in Afghanistan.
5. thediplomat
6. youtube