'This isn't Syria or Iraq': Western media coverage of Ukraine-Russia war reeks of racism

The biggest news of the past week has been Russia's invasion of Ukraine amid strong condemnation from the rest of the world. As news channels scrambled to provide round-the-clock coverage of the crisis, many people have pointed out "racism" in the way reports are presented.

Some Twitter users have alleged that media coverage for the Middle East, Asian and African conflict zones does not receive as much footage as the European conflict.

A Twitter thread by journalist Alan MacLeod detailed some of the instances of "racist" media coverage of the Ukraine crisis. The thread points out shocking terms used by leading news organizations including BBC, CBS News, Al Jazeera, BFM TV, The Daily Telegraph, and the ITS (UK).

On BBC News, Ukraine’s deputy chief prosecutor David Sakvarelidze said he was very emotional seeing “European people with blue eyes and blonde hair being killed every day”.

On CBS News, foreign correspondent Charlie D’Agata while reporting from Kyiv said, “This is a relatively civilized and European city where you wouldn’t expect or hope that it is going to happen.” He also said this wasn't "Iraq or Afghanistan" – countries that have been suffering endless conflict. D'Agata later apologized in a broadcast.

On NBC, a correspondent was asked what has changed in Poland since the last refugee crisis in Europe in 2015, at which time the country had been hesitant to accept refugees.

She shockingly replied, "Just to put it bluntly, these are not refugees from Syria, these are refugees from neighboring Ukraine. That, quite frankly, is part of it. These are Christians, they’re white, they’re very similar people."

On Al Jazeera, Peter Dobbie, while talking about Ukrainians fleeing the country said, "What’s compelling is just looking at them, the way they are dressed. These are prosperous middle-class people. These are not obviously refugees trying to get away from areas in the middle east that are still in a big state of war. These are not people trying to get away from areas in North Africa. They look like any European family that you would live next door to..."

The Telegraph in the UK, in a column by Daniel Hannan, described the invasion as: “They seem so like us. That’s what makes it so shocking. Ukraine is a European country. It's people who watch Netflix and have Instagram accounts, vote in free elections and read uncensored newspapers. It's not in a poor, remote country anymore."

"This isn't a third-world nation; this is Europe"

On ITV (UK), another correspondent reporting from Ukraine said, "The unthinkable has happened...This is not a developing, third-world nation; this is Europe!" 

The racist reporting was also flagged by the Arab and Middle Eastern Journalists Association which cautioned media houses to be "mindful of implicit and explicit bias" in their coverage.

The Arab and Middle Eastern Journalists Association condemns the "orientalist and racist implications that any population or country is 'uncivilized' or bears economic factors that make it worthy of conflict... This type of commentary reflects the pervasive mentality in Western journalism of normalizing tragedy in parts of the world such as the Middle East, Africa, South Asia, and Latin America," the statement said. "It dehumanizes and renders their experience with war as somehow normal and expected."