Summary

• With a rise in terrorist activity spreading fear through highly publicized attacks, Pakistan’s media landscape has increasingly been used as a battleground between those seeking to promote violent conflict and others seeking to manage or deter it.
• Pakistan’s media community has not yet developed an adequate or widely accepted strategy for responding to this context of persistent extremism and conflict.
• The rapid rise of extremist radio stations in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) provinces has paralleled an increase in terrorist attacks, facilitated by affordable access to FM radio, loose government regulation of broadcast media and militant control of pockets in KPK and FATA.
• Negative media attitudes toward the Pakistan-U.S. relationship often reflect national political differences and market incentives for sensationalist coverage. These attitudes can be transformed through changes in the diplomatic relationship between the countries based on open communication rather than institutional media reform.

About this Brief

The public event “Pakistan’s Media: Dissecting its Coverage of Extremism, Terrorism and Pakistan-U.S. Relations" convened Pakistan journalists and media experts Wajahat Ali, Imtiaz Ali and Zahid Hussein at the U.S. Institute of Peace on December 6, 2010. This Peace Brief summarizes the discussion among panelists, attendees and questions from online participants around the world via an interactive webcast.

Hannah Byam is a research assistant with the Center of Innovation for Science, Technology and Peacebuilding. Christopher Neu is a senior program assistant with the Center of Innovation for Media, Conflict and Peacebuilding.

Explore Further

• Learn more about USIP's work on Pakistan
• “Pakistan’s Media: Dissecting its Coverage of Extremism, Terrorism and Pakistan-U.S. Relations"
  Public Event | December 6, 2010
• Centers of Innovation
  • Science, Technology and Peacebuilding
  • Media, Conflict and Peacebuilding