African Journalists Decry Racist Monkeypox Reporting

African journalists have slammed media outlets using images of Black people alongside stories of the monkeypox outbreak in predominantly white countries, saying such reportage promotes "negative stereotype," assigning the "calamity to the African race."

"Is the media in the business of 'preserving white purity' through the 'Black criminality or culpability'," the Kenya-based Foreign Press Association, Africa [FPPA] asked in a statement amid monkeypox outbreak in North America and Europe.

"The virus can occur in any region of the world, regardless of race or ethnicity… No race or skin complexion should be the face of the disease.

It is therefore disturbing for European and North American media outlets to use stock images bearing persons of black and dark and African skin complexion to depict an outbreak of the disease in the United Kingdom and North America," the press association said.