The Foreign Press Association Africa, an umbrella of African journalists, has criticised western media over what they have termed as “racist” and “skewed” coverage of the Ukraine war against Russia.
In a statement dated March 1, 2022, The Foreign Press Association, Africa said that it "is disturbed by the unfortunate opinions that our Western colleagues continue to publicly express about the distinction they see between war and suffering in Ukraine and those that have taken place in poor countries."
The association said that these expressions and the various iterations seen from the western media so far reinforce views that already exist systematically in societies at large, and perpetuate misunderstanding that causes real human harm and division.
"People who are not white are not more innately prone and habituated to violence and suffering. People who are not white are no less civil or incapable of solving conflict. Journalism is a tool that can break the yoke of racism," the association noted.
"The idea that war is a thing that happens in lands outside of the West, is beyond myopic, it is a gross misrepresentation of the entirety of human history," it added.
The journalist’s network added that this is attitude has also been a feature of Western Media coverage of Africa for decades, they said it is glaring in the lack of dignity afforded to black and brown-skinned victims of conflict.
The African journalists said that whereas they were not surprised, it is irresponsible, reprehensible and should be not be in any way associated with such an important profession as journalism.
Call for urgent diversity
The Foreign Press Association Africa called for news organisations to “quickly” diversify and not just out in the field, “with black and brown people working in low pay and worse protection as fixers and translators.”
They said that the diversity must be represented in the organisations’ public faces and voices, and, most importantly, in their leadership.
“It is clear this leadership is needed to steer Western newsrooms in their international commentary, without needing to be prompted by public outrage,” they said.
The criticism from the African journalists comes just days after a Middle Eastern journalist network had also faulted the reportage of the war by western media, urging them to be “mindful of implicit and explicit bias” in their coverage.
Social media has also criticised the reportage by the western media, a satirical thread by a Ugandan journalist Jacky Kemigisa on the same has since went viral.