U.S. Media Criticized For Language Used To Describe Ukrainian Refugees Versus Others

The Arab and Middle Eastern Journalists Association criticized U.S. media reporters’ use of the term “civilized” to describe Ukraine, and its people fleeing violence as those who don’t “look like refugees.”

The organization said calling these new refugees and internally displaced persons as “civilized,” is a far cry from the treatment of refugees of other conflicts in Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan.

In a recent example, CBS News correspondent Charlie D’Agata DAA GADA, reporting from Kiyv, said “this isn’t a place … like Iraq or Afghanistan that had seen conflict raging for decades.”

D’Agata called the Ukrainian capital “a relatively civilized, relatively European” city.

The Washington Post reports that as the statement went viral, D’Agata issued an apology Saturday calling it “a poor choice of words.”