FATA hub of terrorism-related stories

Islamabad, Apr 6, (ANI): A new study released in Pakistan has claimed that, half of all terrorism-related stories published in the country's main newspapers, primarily emanate from the country's Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) and the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) region.

The study called, 'How Pakistani Media Reports Terrorism Related Conflict?' was conducted by Intermedia Pakistan, an Islamabad-based media development organization, which focuses on training, advocacy and research on media issues.

"On TV, the region gets 44 percent of the airtime when it comes to reporting on terrorism-related conflict. The study is based on in-depth content analysis of terrorism-related news reports published in a sample of newspapers and aired on select television channels," the author of the report, Sadaf Baig, told the Daily Times.

The research revealed that FATA dominated the majority of terrorism-cases with 26 percent, followed by KP with 23 percent. Amongst other regions, Balochistan gets 24 percent coverage while Sindh, Punjab, Gilgit Baltistan and AJK comparatively get less coverage.

The most frequently reported incident from Punjab was kidnapping, with 29 percent of the news stories reporting cases of abduction while 46 percent of the news stories mentioned loss of life. (ANI)