The representation of the Afghan Taliban government: a critical discourse analysis of Pakistani media reports

The return of the Taliban to Afghanistan marked the end of the country’s democratically elected government. Since the media plays a crucial role in shaping public opinion and in understanding how ideologies are disseminated through language, this study focuses on the portrayal of the Afghan Taliban government, or as they now call themselves, the Islamic Emirate, in Pakistani media, particularly in two elite newspapers, The News and Dawn. By adopting Fairclough’s three-dimensional model of discourse and Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), this study examines Taliban’s media representations from August 2021 to December 2021, a period during which global media extensively covered the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan. The findings reveal that both newspapers positively framed the Taliban regime, in contrast to their previous negative portrayals. Pakistani media also urged various countries to recognize the Taliban as a legitimate government and support them in running the country. The employment of a particular language and narrative framing provides de facto support for engaging with the Taliban government as a legitimate actor. This study expands our knowledge of media discourse in post-conflict settings by emphasizing the role of Pakistani media in forming regional and global perspectives on the Afghan Taliban.