Peace Agreements, the Media, and Communication

This report uses example peace agreement provisions on media and communication to illustrate the different ways in which conflict parties portray the media, how they seek to reform them, and what role communication provisions play in peace processes.

To provide a general overview, the second section briefly shows in what geographic contexts and at what stage of a peace process conflict parties address media and communication in peace agreements. The following section examines how references to the media are framed in peace agreements, and what role conflict parties assign to the media. The fourth section discusses the different practical ways in which conflict parties seek to (de)regulate and reform the media landscape post-conflict, followed by an overview of peace agreement provisions on communication. The report concludes with a brief summary and a recommendation to mediators and conflict parties to examine the risks and opportunities associated with the media and communication in their peacemaking efforts.