Peace Journalism and the Kurdish Question: A Frame Analysis of the Peace Process in the Turkish Press

ABSTRACT: Peace journalism, that aims to contribute to peaceful transformation of conflicts, emphasizes the free will of journalists on what to report and how to report it. However, what if ―peace‖ becomes the official policy of the state, and the state imposes pressure on the media to act in line? Can the resulting form of journalism be still considered as peace journalism if it is ordered to support peace? This study assesses these questions within the context of the peace negotiations between the Kurdistan Workers‘ Party (Partiya Karkerên Kurdistan- PKK) and the Turkish state. A quantitative frame analysis of the news coverage of the peace process in eleven Turkish newspapers, Cumhuriyet, Habertürk, Hürriyet, Milliyet, Sabah, Sözcü, Taraf, Türkiye, Yeni Şafak, Yeniçağ and Zaman, is conducted in an effort to examine how the so-called ―resolution process‖ was constructed in the mainstream Turkish press in the time period of 2013. The results are compared with the qualitative frame analyses of two cases: PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan‘s Newroz message where he called the armed organization to withdraw across the border on 21 March 2013 and the press conference at the PKK base in Mount Qandil on 25 April 2013, where the PKK announced that they will withdraw. Front pages of the selected newspapers on the consecutive days of these two key events are analysed. The results show that the Turkish press, with the exception of nationalist dailies, supported the peace process in the selected time period. Considering the state-media relations in the country, this study names this form of journalism as ―state-imposed peace journalism. Keywords: Peace journalism, Turkey, peace process, state-media relations, Kurdish question, frame analysis.