The ‘tabloids war’ continues: ‘Libertatea’ takes over Naomi Campbell’s ‘dumb romanian’ housekeeper story

The ‘tabloids war’ between UK’s ‘The Sun’ and Romania’s ‘Libertatea’ continued today with a piece (RO) published in ‘Libertatea’, the most popular Romanian newspaper. On Saturday, ‘Libertatea’ reported the case of Naomi Campbell’s ‘dumb Romanian’ housekeeper, apparently ’stolen from the enemy’, because ‘The Sun’ had published the story one day earlier (Ex-maid brands Naomi a racist, EN). ‘Libertatea’ claims it has got the 40-pages complaint of the housekeeper and promises extensive extracts from it for the Sunday issue.

‘Libertatea’ started on Friday, November 17, a campaign against the British tabloid ‘The Sun’, because of the frequent reports about Romanian immigrants causing all kinds of troubles - such as AIDS, prostitution, theft - in the UK. Two serious British newspapers, ‘The Independent’ and ‘The Guardian’ took over the story in ‘Libertatea’ with various factual errors.

Both ‘The Independent’ and ‘The Guardian’ referred to the ‘Libertatea’ story published on November 17, when the Romanian newspaper started the anti-UK campaign, calling the British ‘pedophiles, drunkards and hooligans’, in answer to The Sun’s assertions that Romanians could bring AIDS into the UK. The campaign has a middle finger pointed up logo and the slogan: ‘Look who’s talking!’

However, ‘The Independent’ claims (EN) that ‘Libertatea’ is in the middle of a fierce sales competition with the rival ‘Averea’; the last official figures known refer to an average of 250 thousand copies sold/day for ‘Libertatea’, while ‘Averea’ is credited by BRAT (RO), the Romanian ABC, with only 20 thousand copies. The source of the error might have been the fact that over 50 per cent of the team of ‘Libertatea’ left the newspaper a few weeks ago, to relaunch ‘Averea’ (EN), but the change process only started. Among others, ‘Averea’ is yet to change its name into ‘Clic’ or ‘Click’ and to do some other adjustments during the next two months.

In an yesterday piece, ‘The Guardian’ (EN, free registration) claimed that Libertatea’s report on November 17 covered the entire front page, while the news only occupies a small square in the bottom right area. Libertatea’s inside coverage is however quite extended.

Several negative stories related to Romania and Bulgaria in ‘The Sun’ newspaper, since the beginning of the month (EN):

• 01 November: Warning over migrant crooks - ‘The Sun’ claims to have a secret Cabinet report that states: ‘Romanian gangs commit 80 to 85 per cent of all cashpoint crime in Britain’
• 02 November: Mafias ganging up on us in the UK - ‘The Sun’ has saved a prostitute from an organized crime network’s hands
• 07 November: We must stop EU crime wave - readers comment the November 1st story
• 16 November: Ex-maid brands Naomi a racist - Gaby Gibson, Naomi Campbell’s maid, accuses the supermodel of hitting her and calling her dumb and pathetic
• 16 November: Migrants’ AIDS epidemic threat - the story that provoked the Romanian tabloid’s reaction

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1. [...] Amuzant modul triumfal in care sunt ciopartite povestile din “The Independent” si “The Guardian” pentru publicarea in Libertatea. “The Sun might have met its match” e tradus prin “Si-au gasit nasul”, cand de fapt eu zic ca sensul e mai aproape de “Cum e sacul, asa e si peticul”. Linkurile catre originale aici, versiunea “Libertatii” dincoace. [...]

   Pingback by HotNews » Fereste linia, The Sun mai da o bomba mediatica! Noroc cu Libertatea… — November 20, 2006 #

2. [...] How it started [...]

   Pingback by Romanian Media Explained » The tabloids war: We’re not Europe’s tuberculars, says Libertatea — November 20, 2006 #

3. [...] Designerii români contraatacă The Sun Arhiva atacurilor româno- şi bulgarofobe din The Sun, cf. http://www.comanescu.ro Several negative stories related to Romania and Bulgaria in ‘The Sun’ newspaper, since the beginning of the month (EN): 01 November: Warning over migrant crooks - ‘The Sun’ claims to have a secret Cabinet report that states: ‘Romanian gangs commit 80 to 85 per cent of all cashpoint crime in Britain’ 02 November: Mafias ganging up on us in the UK - ‘The Sun’ has saved a prostitute from an organized crime network’s hands 07 November: We must stop EU crime wave - readers comment the November 1st story 16 November: Ex-maid brands Naomi a racist - Gaby Gibson, Naomi Campbell’s maid, accuses the supermodel of hitting her and calling her dumb and pathetic 16 November: Migrants’ AIDS epidemic threat - the story that provoked the Romanian tabloid’s reaction Şi acum… bwa-ha-ha-ha… replica WDB, în cheie parodică: via Eugen apud Chestii/Cioace/Şuşanele, care plusează: “Minibannerul exagerează exagerările promovate de The Sun. Fontul şi culoarea benzii roşii sînt inspirate din imaginea tabloidului britanic.” (Radu Ceucă) În anii ‘90 scriam texte pentru Sarmale în aceeaşi manieră, cu aceeaşi intenţie artistică. Era vremea emigraţiei ilegale. Încet-încet, Sarmalele au scos din repertoriu ska-ua Invadatorii (”degeaba nemţii dublează paza frontierelor/ degeaba unii visează la vremea lagărelor/ şi în zadar vienezii îşi păzesc lebedele/ degeaba şi suedezii îşi închid nevestele…” etc.), precum şi bossanova Omul fără nume (”e a cincea zi de coadă / te ştiu toţi din ambasadă / ca pe cîinele din colţ de stradă…” etc., etc.). Cică acum frontierele sînt libere şi cîntecele de bejenie au căzut în desuetudine. Wrong, baby! O să le zic să le repete pentru următorul concert… [...]

   Pingback by Sport » Blog Archive » Designerii români contraatacă The Sun — April 17, 2007 #

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