Supplementary material

Appendix A

1.     Gravitas: Western media's racist reportage on Ukrainian refugees, 28 Feb 2022 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KBRwmTVVKQk

2.     The West Asia Post | Europe welcomes Ukrainians, shuns others, 13 March 2022

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CRY7E_RFBVk

3.     Hypocritical Media Coverage of Ukraine vs. the Middle East, 1 March 2022

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2z9UyPurVok  

4.     Comparing Ukrainian refugee crisis with Syrian refugee crisis, 6 Mar 2022 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0S30JLr1Dn8

All of these videos discuss the double standards in the European response to refugees depending on whether they are Ukrainian or Syrian, rather than refugee status. The first 3 draw from various and overlapping news networks’ clips to make their argument so only these are considered as the first stage of data collection, because the fourth is only an interview with one activist rather than a critique of a series of comments made in various clips from different mainstream news sources. The first 2 videos are from WION - World is One News – who describe their network as non-biased examiner of global issues with in-depth analysis. The third video is from Now This News - an American progressive social media-focused news organization with Vox Media as its parent company.

After multiple viewings of the 3 videos, the author then went to the original news sources to examine the context in which these assertions were made. These are described further below:

1.     In a news item by CBS USA titled ‘Russia closes in on Kyiv with more explosions reported across Ukraine overnight’ CBS senior foreign correspondent Charlie D’Agata is reporting on the Russian military getting closer to Kyiv, with fears are growing that Russia might take the Ukrainian capital.  When the anchor makes a comment that Ukrainians didn’t expect Russia would go this far, D’Agata elaborates how that calculus changed entirely when the Russians started marching closer before adding @11:22: ‘But this isn’t a place, with all due respect, you know, 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’. There was no challenge from the anchors as he continues to report about the state of affairs: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CXYrbCCErSo&ab_channel=CBSNews

2.     In this news item titled ‘War in Europe: ITV News special update as Russia continues its invasion of Ukraine | ITV News’ ITV correspondent Laura Watson who is at one of the main crossing points, a train station, in Poland is asked (@ 50:54) about the many Ukrainians fleeing to Poland. Watson describes the scene of arrivals at this station and the scale of their displacement. The anchor then asks if Poland is being generally welcoming and helpful (@ 55:30) to which a now more emotional Watson responds by describing the number of people who need help who include many children before adding (@57:17): ‘Now the unthinkable has happened to them. And this is not a developing third world nation, this is Europe’. Another anchor in the studio replies with ‘your empathetic reporting Lucy is so moving and striking’ before asking if Ukrainians will feel grateful or betrayed that the West hasn’t don’t more, while the anchor adds (@59:28) ‘I tell you what Lucy, every time you’ve given a report…I think it’s made a lot of us emotional, especially those of us like you, who have children…so thank you’ before that segment finally ends: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dqKtKSeJ5Xw&ab_channel=ITVNews

3.     Peter Dobbie, Aljazeera English anchor describes the situation to his guest as follows: ‘What’s compelling is looking at [the refugees], 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’: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/2/27/western-media-coverage-ukraine-russia-invasion-criticism

4.     In this NBC ‘Ukraine Invasion’ coverage, an anchor comments on the large numbers of refugees being accepted by Poland in the span of 24 hours (15,000 people); a country that was very hesitant in the last refugee crisis of 2015 during the Syrian conflict before asking what has now changed to make the country more welcoming. Kelly Cobiella, an NBC News correspondent explains: ‘Just to put it bluntly, these are not refugees from Syria. These are refugees from neighbouring Ukraine. I mean, that, quite frankly, is part of it. These are Christians. They’re white, they’re very similar to people who live in Poland’. Unlike other correspondents, Cobiella seems to be offering an explanation for why Poland is more welcoming to Ukrainians than Syrians: https://www.facebook.com/QudsNen/videos/watch-here-is-another-episode-of-the-western-mainstream-medias-double-standards-/524818009062869/

5.     In news coverage titled ‘Russian Invasion of Ukraine’, a BBC anchor reports that all Ukrainians are answering their president’s call to defend their country (1:02:50), followed by a lengthy discussion with former Ukrainian deputy prosecutor general David Sakvarelidze about the scale of the war, the might of Russia in comparison to Ukraine, and the bravery of Ukraine compared to the politicking of the West. As the anchor tries to interrupt for further questions Sakvarelidze continues with (@1:18:47): ‘It’s really emotional for me because I see European people with blue eyes and blonde hair being killed, children being killed every day with Putin’s missiles’. This was a comment by a guest and not an anchor but he was not challenged to avoid unbiased coverage according to BBC policy. The anchor replied with ‘Sir, of course I understand and respect the emotion, what you’re outlining there is this tension between longer term pressure to apply to Vladimir Putin… and the very immediate threat which you’re experiencing…’: https://learningonscreen.ac.uk/ondemand/index.php/prog/3BF006C1?bcast=136331078

6.     In an article The Telegraph titled “Vladimir Putin’s monstrous invasion is an attack on civilisation itself”, Daniel Hannan begins with: ‘They seem so like us. That is what makes it so shocking. Ukraine is a European country. Its people watch Netflix and have Instagram accounts, vote in free elections and read uncensored newspapers. War is no longer something visited upon impoverished and remote populations. It can happen to anyone’ before discussing the shattered world order due to the West’s ‘smug sense of security’ which has distracted it with matters of identity politics and gender fluidity while Russia makes its desired advances: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/02/26/vladimir-putins-monstrous-invasion-attack-civilisation/

7.     Kiril Petkov, Bulgarian Prime Minister speaking to journalists explains: ‘These people are intelligent, they are educated people. This is not the refugee wave we have been used to, people we were not sure about their identity, people with unclear pasts, who could have been even terrorists’ so “In other words, there is not a single European country now which is afraid of the current wave of refugees”:

https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-war-refugees-diversity-230b0cc790820b9bf8883f918fc8e313