The behavior of British media undermines the activity of anti-racist organizations
Dozens of publications on an allegedly racist scandal in the FC Spartak (Moscow) have simultaneously appeared in UK media. “BBC”, “Independent”, “Mirror” and other media have published Twitter video with Brazilian soccer players. The video had been accompanied by the following off-screen comments: “Look how chocolates are melting under the sun. It is here, chocolate”. All publications have informed on outbursts of indignation and on a storm of outrage from the public in the social network. And publications have ended with remind of future FIFA World Cup.
The British tabloids have preferred not to go into one important detail – on the day when video with Brazilian soccer players had been recorded the Twitter account of FC Spartak Moscow had been managed by one of the player – Georgiy Jikia, Georgian origin. Brazilian players know Russian language quite well, understand what Georgiy Jikia is taking about and respond to his comments with laugh. One of the Brazilian soccer players, Luiz Adriano, had played in Ukrainian Premier League Championship more than 10 seasons, and the other Brazilian player – three seasons. After the wave of publications in the media FC Spartak Moscow has recorded and published video message from players who had told that there is no racism in the team.
Human rights activists from Human Rights Watch think that such a behavior of the British journalists is prohibitive and it causes difficulties in an international fight with racism. It is necessary to fully describe context and spoken words and takes into account historical features of different countries. Unfounded charges and baseless accusations are casing the loss of agenda for debate on information issues and those true racists are remaining unpunished.
It should be noted that Cristiano Ronaldo, Portuguese and the best World player in 2017, had recently posted on Instagram the photo with his dark-skinned friend – Jose Semedo. Cristiano Ronaldo had titled the photo as “Black-and-white chocolate”. The photo had received more than 2.5 million “likes” in Instagram, and no media had accused Cristiano Ronaldo in racism.
It should be reminded that earlier Foreign Ministry Official Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has stated that British journalists would conduct a campaign against 2018 FIFA World Cup. She said: “We have been informed that UK journalists – not only one media but a lot of the British media – had literally received a state order for launching a media campaign on creating a negative impression for 2018 FIFA World Cup which is to be hosted by Russia. The main themes are the following: allegedly lack of required infrastructure and conditions for conducting of World Cup; aggressiveness of Russian fans; lack of professionalism of local law enforcement forces; inability to guarantee safety to foreign tourists”.