The Foreign Press Association Africa (FPAA) has slammed media outlets for using images of black people alongside stories of the Monkeypox outbreak in North America and the United Kingdom.
Several cases of Monkeypox were detected in Britain, Portugal, Spain and the United States last week.
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), Monkeypox is a zoonotic disease caused by the Monkeypox virus.
The virus can occur in any region of the world. The WHO said it believes that 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 UK and North America,” said FPAA.
“Shouldn’t it be logical that if you are talking about the outbreak of Monkeypox you should use images of hospitals across Europe or the Americas? Or in the absence of such use a collection of electronic micrographs with labelled subcellular structures?
“We condemn the perpetuation of this negative stereotype that assigns calamity to the African race and privilege or immunity to other races.
“Is the media in the business of “preserving white purity” through the ‘black criminality’?”
The Foreign Press Association Africa urged newsrooms outside Africa to update their image policies and censure their staff from the allure of using images of Africans, people of African descent to depict outbreaks.