The coverage of news media on conflicts increasingly became the subject of criticism, accused of sensationalism, oversimplification, and underrepresentation of certain issues. While recognizing that it is the journalists and editors that make choices regarding the collection and framing of the stories and accounts published in newspapers and digital media outlets, this thesis sets to understand these choices against the background of the web of structural constraints pertaining to professional, organizational, economic and political contexts of their work. Drawing on a theoretical perspective of Peace Journalism and Bläsi’s model of factors influencing conflict-coverage, this thesis explores what factors influenced the coverage of Hong Kong’s Anti-Extradition protests and how they can be seen as hindrances or facilitators for Peace Journalism. The study presents the results of a qualitative content analysis of material obtained through semi-structured expert interviews with four journalists who covered the protests on-site. The findings display that factors pertaining to the journalistic system, personal features of the journalist, lobbies, conflict situation on-site, public climate, and audience were playing a significant role in shaping the news production throughout the Anti-Extradition protests. A majority of these factors were identified as limiting rather than facilitating Peace Journalism. This study suggests that in order to have a relevant and lasting impact, Peace Journalism needs to formulate strategies that consider the realities journalists face on the ground and factors influencing conflict coverage that pose limitations to its practice.

Cette œuvre représente une tentative cherchant à mettre en lumière les facteurs qui expliquent la visée des chaînes transnationales de l’information pour créer cet effet de neutralité dans la couverture éditoriale des conflits. Elle analyse également les conditions qui rendent possibles cette stratégie par les limites internes de la rédaction, ainsi que par le biais des attentes des publics. La position privilégiée de l'auteur, qui a depuis plus d'une décennie travaillé comme journaliste au sein de l'équipe éditoriale internationale d'Euronews, lui a permis de tester ses hypothèses et les constatations de l'intérieur de la chaine. Cette thèse examine les stratégies éditoriales des grands chaînes paneuropéens et mondiales d'information, en les plaçant dans la perspective de l'évolution historique de la diffusion transnationale et en analysant des évolutions actuelles dans le contexte de la mondialisation. En se concentrant en particulier sur la question de la neutralité déclarée habituellement dans les politiques éditoriales de ces chaînes, l'étude analyse les divergences dans l'interprétation de ce principe de base aussi bien par les équipes éditoriales comme par des groupes cibles des différents organismes de télédiffusion – un phénomène crucial qui créent des identités distinctes derrière la neutralité prétendue des flux d'information. Les méthodes employées dans la préparation de cette thèse intègrent l’observation participante à l’intérieur d’une chaine de nouvelles internationales de premier plan, une analyse de la perception du contenu des nouvelles par des téléspectateurs se classant parmi des camps politiques antagonistes, et une revue de la littérature et des publications périodiques russes et européennes. / This work represents an attempt to shed light onto the factors that explain the yearning of the transnational news channels to creating the impression of editorial neutrality in conflict coverage. It also demonstrates the conditionality of this guideline by the internal editorial limitations, as well as by the bias of the audience groups. The privileged position of the author, who has for more than a decade been working as a staff journalist within the international editorial team of Euronews, allowed him to test his hypotheses and findings from within. This dissertation examines the editorial strategies of the major paneuropean and global news channels, putting them in the perspective of historical evolution of transnational broadcasting and analysing the current developments in the context of the globalising world of today. Focusing in particular on the issue of commonly declared neutrality in the channels' editorial policies, the study analyses divergencies in interpreting this basic principle both by the editorial teams and by various audience groups of different broadcasters, creating distinct identities behind the supposedly neutral informational flows. The methods employed in preparing this dissertation include involved observational research of a leading international news channel, the analysis of the perception of news content by viewers ranking among confronting political camps, and reviews of topical Russian and European periodicals and literature.