Western media’s hypocrisy in the coverage of the RussoUkrainian crisis

Opinion piece by Tahir Tayob, UCT Law Student

The media are not observers. They are not independent and objective bodies that we have been led to believe. Rather, they are driven by political objectives to fuel specific ideologies, in an attempt to craft the masses into a world order that is of their respective government’s wishes. The coverage of the Russo-Ukrainian war as a heroic, patriotic defence of civilisation is unfortunately not afforded to the resistance by black and brown people against western neoimperialist invasions.

At the outbreak of the conflict, the Russian Federation stated that it was not an invasion, but rather a ‘special military operation’. This is reminiscent of the Israeli Apartheid State’s term of ‘military operations’ in the West Bank, yet western liberal media outlets & governments were quick to report the former as a ‘War’ and failed to afford the same term to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. For decades, settler colonialism and military incursions into Palestinian territory has occurred at the hands of Israel, but rather than face condemnation, military, financial and verbal support has been ever-growing from the West.

In a society where the arrest and detention without trial of Palestinian teenagers is the norm, where is the condemnation from the West? Why does the pillaging and razing of Ukrainian villages deserve more attention? It seems to be that the distinguishing factor is race, when it is a white population that is threatened, that is where a line can be drawn. Ukrainian civilian’s hurling Molotov cocktails at Russian armoured columns are hailed as defenders of their land, while Palestinians who do the same are labelled as terrorists.

According to The Washington Post, in the Cold War period, the United States had attempted to change other sovereign countries governments 72 times, 66 of which were covert operations. In the past three decades, the US has invaded or bombed: Iraq, Iran, Yemen, Afghanistan, Syria and Libya in the Middle East alone. This is excluding wave after wave of sanctions against regimes such as Iran, or continued military support given to Saudi Arabia in their relentless crusade against the Yemeni people. Despite this, there has not been a public outcry from Western Governments and news outlets. There were no hard-hitting sanctions or international isolation that ensued.

On the contrary, the media fuelled US imperialist actions, spewing out propaganda in support of the United States determination to wage a war on the Global South. Western governments often supported the US as part of coalition forces, indicative of the never-ending neo-colonialism that plagues Post-Colonial states. However, when it is the Russian Federation who violates the sovereignty of another nation, the fallout is swift and devastating. This is not to excuse the actions of the Russians in Chechnya, Georgia and Ukraine, but rather to highlight the hypocrisy that exists in not holding the United States to the same criteria

War has been raging on in Ethiopia, Syria, Kashmir, Somalia and Yemen for years, yet hardly as much coverage has been devoted to the plight of these people. An attitude of ‘selective attention’ has been adopted by the West, if they do not look like them, they are undeserving of their attention and help. Prior to the outbreak of the Russo-Ukraine conflict, anti-refugee sentiment had been growing at alarming rates in Europe, with many countries such as Hungary and Poland refusing to accept refugees from the Middle East Yet, when it is blonde-hair, blue-eyed people that are fleeing conflict, the issue is different. Previously antirefugee governments welcomed the Ukrainian people with open arms, because according to news reporters and members of various European parliaments, these refugees were different. A foreign correspondent for CBS is quoted as saying the following:

A place, with all due respect, like Iraq or Afghanistan, that has seen conflict raging for decades. This is a relatively civilised, relatively European- I have to choose those words carefully, too-city where you wouldn’t expect that, or hope that it’s going to happen.

The dominant narrative is that because they are white and ‘relatively civilised’, they should be afforded more attention because it is only supposedly black and brown people that are capable of being involved in or fleeing conflict. They would hope for it not to happen in Europe, but in the Global South war and violence is assumed to be the common norm amongst the ‘uncivilised’ populations. The cradle of civilisation, Mesopotamia, was in the Middle East Across Africa and Asia some of the most influential developments in Science and the Arts arose from these ‘uncivilised’ people Furthermore, what would constitute a people being ‘uncivilised’? Every group of people is known to have historically complex social and political hierarchical structures, yet if they do not look like or talk like Europeans, they are deemed ‘barbaric’ and ‘ savages ’ .

The Western media often seems to forget that the reason why conflict has been raging in places like Somalia, Afghanistan or Iraq is largely due to the fault of the West. Any deviation of a post-colonial state that was not in alignment with what the West determined to be ‘right and just’ was swiftly punished with an invasion, assassination or overthrow of the government. A westernfriendly government was promptly implemented, often at the detriment of the people. Yet this fact is hardly ever recognised when reporting on these ‘uncivilised’ countries takes place

What would explain the deviations in treatment when it comes to condemnation, sanctions and news coverage of different conflicts? The media is complicit in selectively choosing who is newsworthy and who should be cared about. When American bombs are dropped on black and brown bodies, the silence that follows from the international community is deafening. Yet as soon as the location shifts to Europe or a country with a predominantly white population, it is a different story. National monument’s around the world lit up in the colours of the French Tricolour following the November 2015 Paris attacks, yet when has the Eiffel Tower ever lit up in the colours of the Yemeni, Syrian or Palestinian flag? Why is it that when a truck was ran through a Christmas market in Germany that #PrayforGermany was trending, yet when the Global South is bombed into oblivion by the West, not an eyelid is batted? The answer, is that in a Western Eurocentric world order, whiteness is the currency which is most valued.