EU's Borrell protests 'massive coverage' of Russian FM Lavrov by western media amid war

European Union's foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, on Tuesday, complained about "massive coverage" of Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov by the media, stating that "lies circulate faster than the truth". Speaking to  Spanish radio station Cadena SER on July 26, he protested that Lavrov gets more attention in the Western media and added it provides an edge to the Russian diplomat amid Moscow's invasion of Kyiv. Notably, he was pointing fingers at Lavrov's recent visit to African countries-- DR Congo, Ethiopia and Uganda. According to him, the Russian diplomat persuaded Africans about the Western-imposed sanctions that led to the global crisis. 

"Lavrov goes to Africa and tries to persuade the Africans that sanctions are to blame for all that’s happening... and the whole of the Western media repeats it," RT World quoted Borrell as saying to the radio station.

On the other hand, the EU foreign policy chief underscored when he went to Africa and tried to convince people that it was Russia that led to a global crisis, Western media ignored his coverage. "I go to Africa to say the opposite, that sanctions have nothing to do with it, and nobody picks it up," he added. Further, he criticised the way media gave attention to Lavrov and said it has become a tendency to give space to the "enemy". 

Borrell has become an "online ghost" on social media platforms 

According to the EU foreign policy chief, due to "one-sided" media coverage, it has become problematic for him to re-explain the topic twice to the people. A comparison published by a US-based media outlet, Politico about the media coverage between the two leaders found Lavrov was covered extensively in media and on social media platforms. On Facebook, the media outlet found Borrell has become an "online ghost" where his videos barely come in the newsfeed. "Over the same time period, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell… was a virtual ghost online, based on data from CrowdTangle, a social media analytics tool owned by Meta. He garnered just one mention on Facebook about Africa compared to Lavrov’s tidal wave of coverage," Politico wrote.

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