Almost no Ukrainian publication or TV channel has tried to address the problem of racism in Ukrainian society. Very few journalists seemed interested in critically exploring Lapshyn’s social networking website and the groups to which he subscribed. The results of such an exploration are very interesting. For example, one particular group, the openly neo-Nazi ‘WotanJugend Info’, has over 20,000 subscribers: 2,080 from Ukraine, of which 81 are from Lapshyn’s home town, Dnipropetrovsk. In 2012, Ukrainian NGOs (‘Diversity Initiative’, ‘No Borders’, Euro-Asian Jewish Congress and others) registered 17 verified racist attacks in Ukraine on migrants from Congo, Nigeria, Pakistan, Guinea, Cameroon and Sierra-Leone, as well as six Ukrainian citizens of Crimean Tatar and Jewish origin. Fortunately none of the victims died. The causes of racist violence in Ukraine and sources of racist sentiments in the Ukrainian society are complex and cannot be linked to one particular phenomenon. However, some Ukrainian media, irrespective of whether they openly or covertly support Yanukovych’s regime or the opposition to it, are complicit in normalising right-wing extremism in the country by ignoring, denying or under-reporting racist incidents. At times one has the impression that the extreme right has infiltrated some mainstream Ukrainian media. Otherwise, how can one explain the fact that online newspaper Levy Bereg recently engaged a neo-Nazi activist to write a slanderous ‘expert opinion’ [in Ukrainian] on Ukrainian football, or that The Insider uncritically republishes [in Ukrainian] materials from ‘WotanJugend Info’?
Posted on: Tue, 12 Nov 2013 22:13:00 +0000
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