Media and Human Rights: A Study of the Kashmir Conflict in the Indian Press

Abstract

This study examines how the Indian press reported the Kashmir conflict according to the Human Right Journalism model. We applied frame analysis on the 392 news stories of two Indian newspapers, The Hindu and Hindustan Times. The Study uses content analysis techniques to draw inference about the selected frames. The results of the study show that Indian press gave human-wrong journalism approach while reporting the happenings in Kashmir. The findings also show that the Indian press followed the nationalistic narrative and reported the events from distance frames. We found that the journalistic approach in Indian Press is determined by the type of news. In terms of reporting on soft topics, the newspapers reported human-right journalism approach, while reporting on hard topics, human-wrong journalism approach were applied. Limitations of the study are given at the end.