Standart News

The British tabloid News of the World wants to hire a Bulgarian prostitute wishing to leave for the UK after the accession of her country to the EU and the lifting of the visa regime. A team from this newspaper plans to write a series of materials about her in Bulgaria as well as articles about her future “deeds” in Britain. They have even planned to escort her when she, according to the editorial script, catches the first flight to London in the early morning of January the 1st, 2007.
 The Bulgarian Standart daily accidentally found out about this project of the editors of News of the World. The British tabloid has sent to Bulgaria three journalists touring the Black Sea coast and looking for the right “protagonists”. The Bulgarians, whom the journalists addressed for help during their search, alarmed the Editorial Office of Standart and told the story of this unusual request. Apart from the prostitute, the British journalists were looking for someone to arrange them a meeting with a forger who would make for them a perfect copy of a British passport. Apparently they didn’t know that ordering a fake passport is also punishable by law. After Bulgaria’s accession in EU on January 1st, 2007, throngs of prostitutes, mafia gangsters, and all kinds of Bulgarian scum will barge in to seek better economic opportunities – this is the assertion, which the three Britons aim to prove. In the last week several British tabloids seem to take part in a campaign against Bulgaria. Yesterday the Sun published a highly exaggerated article about the hordes assaulting each morning the Visa section of the British embassy in Sofia. A week ago The People published an article by its correspondent in Sofia Daniel Jones, which appeared to be highly exaggerated. The Bulgarian journalist Ivelina Puhaleva, who had accompanied her British colleague, claimed that the Editors Office took the liberty to highly deform and “stain with blood” the articles of its correspondent. One example is the number of unemployed citizens in Bulgaria - The People claims they are 1 680 000. In fact, the level of unemployment in Bulgaria is at a record low rate. Daniel Jones was told in the Bulgarian Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs that the number of unemployed is under 300 000, Ivelina Puhaleva recalls.