The war on Ukraine between professional standards and media ethics

The media coverage of the Russian war on Ukraine showed the existence of press practices that violated two things: professional standards and media ethics, which I seek to prove in this article, and did not escape major media such as "French MSM", and "BBC((BBC), ITV, ITV, CBS, NBC, and even English island.

For example, NBC's correspondent described the Ukrainian refugees who cross the border to Poland as "not refugees from Syria, but from neighboring Ukraine.Frankly, these are Christians;They are eggs, and they are like people who live in Poland.."This place is neither Iraq nor Afghanistan who witnessed conflicts over decades.This is a relatively civilized country, and a relatively European, and you will not expect or wish that something like this will happen in it..Commenting on the scene of the Ukrainians crowded to ride on a train to escape the war, the broadcaster of the English channel (Peter Dobbie) said, "Look at the image of these clothes, they belong to the luxurious middle class; they are not refugees trying to escape from their countries in the Middle East or North Africa,Rather, they seem like any European family who lives in the vicinity..In the British Telegraph, "Daniel Hannan" wrote, saying, "They resemble us, and this is what makes the issue shocking.Ukraine is a European country whose people are watching Netflix, and they have accounts on Instagram, vote in the elections, and they have a free press.The war no longer occurs in isolated poor societies, but may happen to anyone..

This is just a sample of the media comments on the war, and it is comments that sparked the discontent of many through social media, but the matter was not limited to the media, but rather went to statements and behaviors of official and governmental figures. The Prime Minister of Bulgaria said frankly, "Ukrainian refugees are not from the refugees we used to,So we will welcome them.These Europeans are smart and educated, and they do not have a mysterious past as if they were terrorists..As for "David Sakvarelidze" - a former prosecutor in Ukraine - he told "BBC", "" What is happening is feeling feelings; I watch European people with blue eyes, blond hair and children who are killed by Putin missiles every day. ".A video of the Polish police refused to receive African students studying in Ukraine chanting "We are students we are not refugees", but a report published by the German "DW" website showed a Nigerian complaint, a Polish negation, and a promise from Ukraine to investigate the matter.

But what drives a journalist;Anchor or correspondent, until he moves from transferring the event and commenting on it to get involved in those comparisons that offend other peoples, violate the ethics of journalistic work, and violate professional standards in that they violate the principle of objectivity?This question leads us to discuss two main issues:

There is a central point called previous media statements, which are that they all slip into the comparisons contract between the plight of Ukraine and the plight of other peoples in the Middle East and Africa in particular, and this comparison includes 3 considerations:

The Association of Arab Journalists and Middle East Journalists (Ameja) condemned the "racist coverage of war", and it is noteworthy that the statement confirmed an important set of points: (1) Rejection of the comparisons that justify some conflicts and sympathize with others, which contributes to removing the context of conflicts and reduces the suffering of the population who They suffer from occupation and aggression, (a) and the lack of comparison between the victims; As "civilian victims and displacement in other countries is a matter of any place anywhere", (3) and refused "to normalize the tragedy in parts of the world such as the Middle East, Africa, South Asia and Latin America" ​​by stripping peoples of their humanity and holding them responsible for the conflict and considering them deserved For the war through their stigmatization by not urbanization, (4) and solidarity with civilians who are subjected to military attacks in various parts of the world, and at the same time.

But is the defect in the idea of the same comparison made by the aforementioned journalists, regardless of the validity or incorrectness of its summaries?The comparison is one of the tools of thinking and research, but rather by comparison, we can understand a deeper understanding of the phenomena, and that means that the problem does not lie in the same comparison but rather in the presence of previous biases that led to such comparisons, meaning that the comparison here was not a tool for understanding and analysis but formed a tool to prove tribal value perceptionsAnd to show the positions and convictions of the former journalists, and this means that they did not only fail ethical, but also professionally failed;And this statement from 3 sides:

The first of them: They were involved in the issue of coverage and took advantage of the event to disclose their cultural and ethnic biases, and it is worthy of the journalist not to identify with his topic and to maintain a degree of objectivity in his performance, so if his coverage of a war in Europe will differ from his coverage of a war in the Middle East as a result of his coldness in a place and the heat of his feelings inElsewhere;This would raise the question about its objectivity and then its credibility.

Second: The previous comments involve a valuable rule based on the derogation of the humanity of others for ethnic, cultural, religious and geographical considerations, but rather they want to carry viewers on (more) of sympathy for the Ukrainians, just because they "resemble us", and not because their cause is fair in that they are subjected to invasionA Russian is legally unjustified, because they are not like the rest of the refugees deserve a preferential advantage of sympathy and assistance.

Third: The previous comments - based on professional standards - fall within the scope of gossip;As it does not provide any useful information regarding the news or regarding the context that helps to understand a deeper understanding of the circumstances of the event.That is, journalists in this case have gone out of the field of journalistic work to the field of viewing viewers of solidarity with them and in immoral methods, as well.

The lack of distinction between the previous two levels, I mean comparison as a tool for understanding and analysis, and comparison as a methodology for evaluation and comparison, would lead to confusion between 3 areas: political, moral and journalist:

An example of comparison with the aim of analysis and understanding is that the New York Post described a Ukrainian soldier who bombed himself on a bridge to prevent Russian progress as a "champion Ukrainian soldier".Useful for more analysis and research in the different contexts and then the calendars and factors affecting them.Examples also include the statement of the British Foreign Minister in which she supported the direction of those wishing to fight to Ukraine, including the British. For the issue, such as the difference between the action of the state and the organizations that are without the state, and the difference between the operations of resisting invasion according to the logic of the nation -state, and the ideology that seeks to establish a state on the ruins of the existing state, and it is also important in this comparison to not retrieve to support prior summaries; The British Defense Minister, for example, took a contradiction to the position of the British Secretary of State and opposed the idea of ​​foreign fighters.

Previous media comments involve clear or even evaluation provisions, and the description of "racism" applies, and the announcement issued by the General Conference of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization in 1978 applied in one of its items that racism includes - within what includes - any biased position orA discriminatory behavioral pattern, as it includes "the false lawsuit to the existence of moral and scientific justifications for discriminatory relations between groups"..With the previous comments, we are facing a distinction between humans or the belief of the superiority of a group of them over others;Based on ethnic features (such as color and shape, for example), cultural (such as dress and lifestyle) or religious (such as Christianity and Islam here), it is based on a comparison in behavior, rights and duties.These considerations are not ethical;Because it refers to factors that have no entrance in formulating duties and establishing moral values at least from the western perspective of human rights itself, as it is not suitable for a source of legitimacy to human differences and moral duties towards refugees or those who are in the ordeal of war who need help, unlike criteriaSuch as humanity, the need for help, or weak or vulnerable groups.

Racism is a relatively modern concept, as it grew up in the European era of imperialism and then expanded with the growth of capitalism in particular the slave trade, and then it had a role in legalizing colonialism and genocide, but we see it today in various contexts, including this media coverage that reflects Orientalist perceptions.The previous reviews involve a veiled idea, that the suffering of non -eggs (or non -Europeans) is caused by their low cultures, and this leads to accepting the idea of inequality and legitimacy to discrimination in treatment.Accordingly, the outstanding superior and the color of help deserve;Because it is also, and because it is - of course - does not tolerate the idea of war that seems to be foreign to him and about his pattern of thinking and modern life, because violence and the decision of war seem as if they are the manufacture of "others", specifically Muslims in the Middle East and Africa who are reconciled with violence and war;It looks as if it is part of their low and uncivilized culture!

But to what extent do these media comments and some discriminatory behaviors that appeared in Ukraine and Poland seemed the depth of the crisis within the European culture itself?Certainly, generalizations cannot be issued, but the phenomenon is present and worrying, just as America itself did not succeed in erasing it, then it is escalating in Europe with the growth of the extreme right, and David Goldberg and Charles Mills have argued that racism is rooted - depth - in the cultures and languages of modern European societies, and that this conversion to thisSocieties for the prevailing classical liberal concepts about individualism, equality and freedom could not hide the same racism.In my estimation, considering "difference" is a problem that requires absorption and integration policies, it reflects a form of racism that rejects pluralism or tolerance with different cultural and religious forms and patterns that do not correspond to the modern model that is intended to be imposed, because what otherwise is - necessary - the description of urbanization is not achieved in itAnd the civil, and then it must be reported and diminished!Is this not the same "harmony" in the social fabric that Bashar al -Assad spoke about after the killing and displacement of millions of Syrians from the Sunnis, especially since he was presented in the Western press after receiving the authority as a "modern" man who was educated in the West?

I did not personally stand on any critical comment of the behavior of the former journalists in their press institutions themselves, nor by their colleagues who listened to those comments on the air, and perhaps the English island broadcast from the Middle East is an exception here, it issued a statement that apologizes to its viewers for this defectThe professional, who signed her broadcaster referred to previously..Instead of "BBC" criticizing these positions - including the comment of the prosecutor mentioned previously on its screen - a tweet was published on Twitter accompanied by a video of its correspondence, which met a Nigerian young man, in which he described the Ukrainian army as dealing with them as animals, and then quickly made to the tweetIts title became as follows: "Last night was very difficult and the army was very mean," it appears that it is a formula to alleviate the harshness of racial behavior by the Ukrainian army!

Previous media comments agree on a central concept that is the bias of those who "resemble" in shape, color, clothing, lifestyle and adopting the same values, which means that the statements of liberalism for freedom, tolerance and pluralism did not succeed in erasing the aversion to the difference that the bias covers to those who resemble us only, and give it priorityPerhaps the exclusive right to help and resort to either as a result of the stereotype of Islamic terrorism, or for fear of those who threaten the supposed cultural harmony.Thus, the total and human value perspectives decline to its minimum borders, according to political and cultural perspectives.

The problem does not stop, then, at the limits of comparison or upholding, as a group at the expense of diminishing from another category, but also transcends it to the criteria of the comparison on which it determines the most human and the least humanitarian, or who has the right to help and asylum and who does not deserve it.Will the comparison on ethical or nervous, ethnic and cultural nervousness?What distinguishes ethical considerations is that they are valuable considerations that have wide support and are characterized by college and inclusiveness, and transcend narrow biases, such as the rights and neighborhood rights, for example, and yet these values are not the same, because the differentiation between them occurs when contradictory.As for the mere similarity in form or lifestyle, it does not involve value, as well as being a preferential factor, which is part of a modern cultural perspective and is involved in racist situations despite the claims of freedom, pluralism and tolerance with the difference..