Reporting the 2010 agitation in Kashmir

IN Books | 24/05/2011

STUDENT RESEARCH ON THE HOOT: A comparative study of the regional and mainstream dailies suggests discernable differences in their coverage of 2010 Kashmir agitation.

AAMIR BASHIR finds that civilian casualties were under-reported in the mainstream papers as compared to those reported in the local dailies.

A comparative study of the regional and mainstream dailies suggests discernable differences in their coverage of 2010 Kashmir agitation. The number of violence-related stories appearing in the mainstream dailies was less than those in regional dailies. Civilian casualties were under-reported by the mainstream papers and more emphasis was laid on the politics of the issue.

The six-month long 2010 agitation is regarded by most political analysts here as worse than the summer agitations in 2008 and 2009.

The year was marked by violence. Killings, protests and shutdowns formed a major chunk of the everyday news. Moreover, there were repeated instances of media gagging. All this was accompanied by a strong discourse over whether AFSPA (Armed Forces Special Powers Act) should be withdrawn from the state.

Though the period coincided with foreign ministerial level talks between India and Pakistan and the dialogue invariably had its bearing in the valley, the reports pertaining to it have not been included in this study. Since it was difficult to cover both the political and violence related aspects due to time constraints, we have looked at only violence and agitation related stories.

We have taken two national dailies – Delhi editions of The Hindu and The Indian Express, and two local dailies – Srinagar editions of Greater Kashmir (GK) and Rising Kashmir (RK) to make the comparisons.

FINDINGS

I. CIVILIAN INJURIES

The comparison shows that the civilian casualties were under-reported in the mainstream papers as compared to those reported in the local dailies. However, both the mainstream and regional dailies have reported almost equal number of civilian deaths.

The only exception to the observation was that Gk reported 15 injuries in Kreeri on July 30 while the Hindu reported 20.

For the first time in years, anti-government protests broke out in Uri on July 31. Hindu and Express did not report it; GK did.

As for protests in the other parts of the valley on that day, GK had it as its lead story. Express and Hindu had the story on inside pages. Hindu, in fact, had a very small story.

(Rising Kashmir’s edition for this date is not available online.)

CIVILIAN INJURIES

DATES	The Hindu	Indian Express	Greater Kashmir	Rising Kashmir
20 Jul	No story	No story	24	NA
30 Jul	20	70	90	NA
31 Jul	40	40	37+12 unconfirmed =49	NA
15 Aug	20	40 (including SFs)	21	50
17 Aug	12	No story	17+ 12+5 (Srgr) =34	50
18 Aug	40	5	20+6+2+14 = 42	16
20 Aug	No story	NA	1 Dead, 16 injured	1 dead, 20 injured
14 Sep	15 Killed, injured unconfirmed	17 Killed, 131 injured	17 Killed, 200 injured	17 Killed, 150 injured
15 Sep	No story	10	60	30
16 Sep	25	10	20+20+40=80	40+20+6=66
18 Sep	25	25 (*came on 17^th)	20+6=26	35
19 Sep	No Story	17	3+12+1=16	4+unconfirmed

(Multiple figures refer to multiple incidents.)

II. SECURITY FORCES AND MILITANTS’ INJURIES

While it is difficult to say if this was a trend, the number of policemen and CRPF personnel injured in clashes with civilians were reported less by the local media. However, number of killings, particularly encounter deaths, remained the same.

MENDHAR ENCOUNTER: The news on Mendhar encounter was reported largely in the same way in both mainstream and regional dailies. All newspapers reported the death of a Major on 15 July. The killing of a militant and the Colonel’s injury, apart from 5 other injured were also reported.

The focus in Express and Hindu was on the death of the militant; while GK gave much more weight to the fact that an Army-man had been gunned down.

SECURITY FORCES INJURIES/DEATHS

DATES	The Hindu	Indian Express	Greater Kashmir	Rising Kashmir
15 Jul	1 Killed; 6 Injured	1 killed; 6 Injured	1 killed; 6 Injured	NA
16 Jul	3 Injured	-	-	NA
18 Jul	-	2 Injured	2 Injured	NA
15 Aug	10 Injured	Unconfirmed*	2 Injured	1 killed; 2 Injured
17 Aug	1 killed; 3 Injured	1 Injured	1 killed; 4 Injured	1 killed; 2 Injured
14 Sep	-	15 Injured	6 Injured	1 Injured**

*Total 40 injuries, including SFs and civilians

** The lead says 113 policemen have been injured since protests erupted in June. 41 of them are critical.

However, in case of militants killed, the papers reported almost same numbers.

MILITANTS DEATHS

DATES	The Hindu	Indian Express	Greater Kashmir	Rising Kashmir
15 Jul	1	1	2***	NA
16 Jul	1	2*	2	NA
18 jul	-	-	1+2	NA
19 Jul	1	-	1	NA
27 Jul	-	-	1	NA
17 Aug	1+3	-	3****+1	3
17 Sep	7	7 + 30**	7+30**	-

*Appeared in 18^th July edition.

** Army says 30 terrorists killed this month

*** Report says that though army “claimed” 2 militants were killed, “no bodies were recovered”.

**** Story appeared on August 16

III. HEADLINES

Since the print editions of the newspapers being reviewed were unavailable, the font-size and placement of a story on the page could not be documented.

However, it was found that headlines in The Hindu and The Indian Express were much more straightforward than in GK and RK, which mostly had sarcastic headlines. The lead stories in the regional dailies always had kickers and strap-lines.

IV. PLACEMENT OF STORIES

While the regional dailies gave the front-page space to most stories, the national dailies seldom put it on the first page. They usually placed their stories on Jammu & Kashmir page.

PAGES	The Hindu	Indian Express**	Greater Kashmir
Front Page	15	6	82
National	*1 Srinagar, 3 Jammu, 19 general	33	-
J&K Page	3	12	Kashmir- 10
J&K Page	3	12	Jammu- 4
International	-	1	1 (South Asia)
Others	1	1	2

*Here, Srinagar and Jammu are the “Sections”.

**Express has separate “India” and “National Network” pages. For convenience, they have been compiled together in the National row.

The archives of Rising Kashmir uptil August 15, 2010 are not available. Moreover, the rest of the archives are badly sorted and the placement of stories in the website is haphazard.

V. EDITORIALS AND ANALYSIS PIECES ON VIOLENCE-RELATED TOPICS

As the table shows, the local paper had far more comment on the violence than the national dailies.

	The Hindu	Indian Express	Greater Kashmir
Editorials	1	1	6
Other Edits	6	2	13
Op-ed	1	1	8

VI. CONCLUSION

It is not surprising or unusual that the local newspapers gave more prominent display to the violence and editorialized on it much more. But it may be a comment on the skew in perception that the number of policemen and CRPF personnel injured in clashes with civilians were always reported less by the local media, even as civilian casualties were under-reported in the mainstream papers. However, the number of civilian killings, and of encounter deaths, remained the same.

Aamir Bashir is doing his masters in Mass communication and Journalism at the Media Education Research Centre, Kashmir University.