MEDIA COVERAGE OF THE UKRAINIAN CRISIS IN BRITAIN & FRANCE (2013–2017)

Abstract

The Ukrainian Revolution followed by Russian aggression was in part analyzed in the French and British press with some scepticism, although the great majority of newspapers and the governments of these two countries firmly condemned the annexation of Crimea by Russia as well as Russian military support for the Donbas rebels. However, some of the French and British media were swayed by rumours spread by Russian propaganda. Many journalists have misled the public in their oversimplification of the conflict by implying a false political division between Ukrainians and the Russophone population, deplorably confusing the Russian-speaking Ukrainian populace with Ukrainians of Russian origin.

The Western media’s view on the Ukrainian Crisis has already been studied. So in order to bring something new, we decided to use as a central theme the vision of the prestigious British magazine, The Economist, which summarizes quite accurately the western, liberal view on the Ukrainian conflict. We also looked at different British and French newspapers and online media from 2013 to 2017. We have divided this research into eleven events, starting from the Trade War in 2013, The February Revolution, Crimea’s annexation, Odessa’s fire, Petro Poroshenko’s election, the destruction of the Malaysian airliner, the new Rada assembly, the self-proclaimed Republics in Donbas, the Eurovision diplomatic crisis between Ukraine and Russia, the decommunisation laws and finally the ban on Russian social networks in Ukraine.