Framing of Panama Leaks in Pakistan’s Leading Newspapers

Prof. Dr. Syed Abdul Siraj1, Anbreen Waheed2

Abstract
The Panama Leaks is a high-profile issue in the political landscape of Pakistan. The Court trail of Ex-Prime Minster (Muhammad Nawaz Sharif) and his family on Panama case were analyzed in this study covering Pakistan‟s Urdu and English newspapers. In this study the content analysis method has been used. For analyzing panama leaks issue four leading newspapers of Pakistan, two English newspapers The Dawn and The Nation and two Urdu Newspapers Daily Express and Daily Jang have been selected. Five frames Conflict, Public interest, Responsibility, Economic Consequences and Morality have been selected from the previous study of Holli A. Semetko and Patti M. Valkenbur (2000). 437 news stories on panama leaks
were collected from news of front pages and editorial pages of leading newspapers.
Overall the coverage on Panama case in Urdu leading newspapers was more than
English newspapers. More over the seriousness towards panama issues was higher in
both Urdu and English newspapers. The topic which excessively covered by the
selected leading newspapers during timeline was “Court Proceeding” and
“conferences/Statements”. However the space has been given to Panama stories in
Daily Jang was significantly higher than other newspapers.

Key words: Panama Leaks, Frames, Pakistani Newspaper.