BBC World Service and Aljazeera: News  Frames Analysis of Girls’ Education Activists’ Arrests Under Strict Sharia Law in Afghanistan

Abdul Malik; Prof. Dr. Babrak Niaz; Abdul Khalil

doi:10.5281/zenodo.8335809

Authors

Abdul Malik Lecturer, Media Studies Department, University of Balochistan, Quetta https://orcid.org/0009-0002-5193-1895
Prof. Dr. Babrak Niaz Professor / Chairperson Media Studies Department, University of Balochistan, Quetta https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2566-1561
Abdul Khalil Lecturer, Media Studies Department, University of Balochistan

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.8335809

Keywords:

Girls, Education, Activists, Sharia Law, Taliban, Media Frames

Abstract

The frames covering the Afghan girls’ education activists’ arrests in BBC World Service and Aljazeera a content analysis of both the news outlet in a time when Afghanistan is ruled by the strict version of Sharia law and activists are persecuted. Framing theory is applied on the contents published in one-year contents and studied the published stories of both organizations through code-sheet and searched the statistics differing. The way these two international organization cover activists arrests news through the arrests news, condemnation and blames frames studied shows BBC World Service is taking a more compromising both in pressure, from Taliban and the Western human rights organizations, reporting while Aljazeera—a Gulf country organization stationed in Qatar and Taliban do not feel it as a rival or propaganda organization, is bold and having more stories, version from all sides and detailed stories. The study shows how a western media organization report out of fear of ban on its journalists in Afghanistan while the Gulf country media organization utilize its freedom of expressions at the same time. The paper suggests that the media organizations covering Afghanistan under Taliban should not compromise the basic codes and ethics of journalism and give freedom of expression a chance in a time when the masses need it under the moto of voice for the voiceless.

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