Jornal de Comunicação de Massa e Jornalismo

Indo-Pak Newspapers Coverage of the Pulwama Incident

Abstract

Asfandiyar

In the political and military tensions between India and Pakistan, print media play an important role in stabilizing the issues or portraying the narrative of the state to the world. Both the countries spend more on defense in comparison to other sectors. The main reason for spending billions of USD on the military is the Kashmir issue. Though both countries have a long lasted history of rivalry when it comes to the Kashmir issue after the Pulwama attack, the tensions between the two neighboring countries were the worst in the last thirty years. In such a horrible situation, media from both sides were busy defending their stances. This study aims to the comparison of Pulwama attack coverage in English newspapers from both sides (Daily dawn from Pakistan and the Hindu from India) that how these most circulated newspapers covered the whole conflict, what were their contributions to peace, and how they portrayed the stance of their governments. As the incident started on 14 February 2019 after the bomb blast, therefore we have covered editorials of both newspapers from 14 February to 5 March 2019. Both sides exaggerated the whole issue however; we noticed that Indian media and political leadership used harsh words and false statements.