Horse meat scandal- how it was presented by the Romanian Media
1. Panteio University of Political and Social
Sciences
Department of Communication, Media and Culture
Advertising and Public Relations Lab
Crisis Management Workshop
Instructor: Mania Xenou, CEO Reliant Communications
Head of Advertising & PR Lab, Assistant Professor
Betty Tsakarestou (@tsakarestou)
3. MediaFax
• Objective
• Mere information, just facts
• quotes of romanian
authorities
• third person speech :
«Romania is not to be
blamed»
• logical : «No country blamed
Romania oficially for the
scandal»
• journalism style
ProTv
• Subjective
• information with
comments
• « on the fielf» research,
experts, interviews with the
involved parts
• first person speech: «we
are not to be blamed»
• psychological feeling
• sentimental: «we didn’t get
any apology althought it’s
proven is was not our fault»
4. February 1st :
«A famous chain of fast food admits officially
that sold burgers containing horse meat »
Burger King (Silvercrest)
5. February 8th :The reaction of the Romanian
authorities in the horse meat scandal in Britain:
"The allegations are false"
• French manufacturers blame the supplier, which would be
one of our slaughter houses and threaten with lawsuits.
Our authorities say bluntly that the accusations are false:
the meat supplies for export are correct, but it's possible
for someone to change the documents on their way to the
destination point .
• Although no official information has been received through
the European alert system, our authorities have started an
investigation of its own. No later than Monday will be
checked the export documents of the 25 slaughterhouses
that may slaughter horses.
• Our officials say it is impossible for the horsemeat to get
out of our country with false documents.
6. Romania exports horse meat, 20 percent cheaper than beef in Italy Belgium,
Holland and France. The difference is easily observed in lean meats.
«Our horses made lasgna»
7. Beef is red, firm and has a white fat, while the horsemeat is brown, soft and has
orange fat. Veterinarians say it is impossible for a processor of good faith not to
realize that its putting in blender one instead of another. Especially Romania
exports only whole horse carcases or pieces of meat, not mincemeat.
Watch the horse, the horse is gone
beef horsemeat
8. Daniel Constantin: Romania has not
exported horse meat labeled as beef
• Minister of agriculture, Daniel
Constantin, said on Monday,
that from Romania has not been
exported mislabeled horse meat.
The authorities checked two
slaughterhouses mentioned by
the French company, but the
suspicions were not confirmed.
In the past 48 hours the Romanian authorities have conducted
extensive control actions to clarify the suspicions that from
Romania would have gone in intra-Community space mislabeled
meat. We act in a preventative manner as , so far, no official
notification was sent to Romania,»the minister said.
9. «Since leaving the citizen’s farm and until it is
sealed, the merchandise passes through at least four
veterinary controls. It exits the country sealed and
will be unsealed only at its enter in the processing
unit. One company of the two investigated
exported only horse meat, which means that the
mislabeling was impossible. The second export
both horse meat and beef, but it has a tradition of
seven years in the field, without having ever
suspicions on how they operate. Checks on this
company did not confirm mislabelling, »said the
Minister of Agriculture.
10. February 13th : British finally make tests
at their own home, concerning the horse
meat scandal. A slaughterhouse and a
factory involved
• After they rushed to point fingers at the French, who at their
turn have accused us, the British have thought to make checks
and at their own home.
• After days the British pointing the finger to slaughterhouses in
Romania, on the grounds that it would had exported horse
meat labeled as beef, the British finally did checks and at their
home. And irregularities came across in a chain: last night the
police and food safety inspectors closed a slaughterhouse in
West Yorkshirre and a factory in Wales because they commited
fraud, meaning that it was the British who were selling horse
meat as beef.
• British officials said they are stunned by the discovery, but no
excuses were pronounced for Romania.
11. "All the meat sold as horse meat was horse meat, large pieces of boneless
horse meat, not chopped and no beef. We do not have any involment in this,
and any labeling error, willingly or unwillingly was not made by us," says Paul
Soneriu, director of a slaughterhouse.
Who made the mistake must pay, because the Romanian industry suffered a huge
damage of image as a result of the denigrating campaign from last week.
12. Searches of premises in UK and
investigation in Paris in horse meat scandal
The scandal of horse meat falsely stamped as
"beef«, led Tuesday in performing searches in
the UK, at two companies suspected of
supplying horse meat instead of beef, and the
first discovery of fraudulent products France.
13. • The horse meat scandal could affect us more than the drought in
2012. But if we did not do anything wrong in this case, we can not
remain Europe’s perpetrators of service, says Prime Minister Victor
Ponta.
• That's because similar scandals such as that with the cucumbers
two years ago, produced million euros damages. So Romania is
entitled to request and receive compensation from the British and
French who played with affirmations and blew up the whole
romanian meat industry.
• Especially, those who triggered the scandal have found irregularities
in their backyard. The British closed in the last 24 hours a
slaughterhouse and a factory where horses were slaughtered and
sold as beef.
• Even if the economic damage brought to Romania can not be
estimated yet, the image one is huge.
14. Ponta on BBC News: We checked all the
information in the case of horse meat and
there were no irregularities
• The Romanian authorities have verified all the
available information for horse meat, including
the one related to the meat processing procedure,
and so far have not identified any irregularity, said
Wednesday, Prime Minister Victor Ponta BBC
News.
• He also said that this problem is a very serious
crisis for Europe, not only for Romania, United
Kingdom and France, as it affects the right of
European consumers to food safety.
15. February 14th : Victor Ponta
• Romania could be a «victim or a scapegoat» in the horse meat scandal if it
had not reacted very quickly and clearly, consider Prime Minister Victor
Ponta.
• The French company Spanghero is at the origin of wrong labeling horse
meat, according to a survey conducted by the government in Paris, reports
AFP.
• The Government will begin the «offensive» for a better promotion of
Romania after the crisis of horse meat is over, given that so far the
Romanians "shut up every time," said Prime Minister Ponta.
• «We stopped the attack and now we must go on the offensive, to say that
we were falsely accused. Under the circumstrances was created - I think
more of because of us, of Romanians, because we shut up every time - the
feeling that for any trouble at European level, Romania and Bulgaria are
the perpetrators of service, so we must promote the fact that Romania
has a modern agriculture and comply with all European regulations.»said
Ponta.
16. "Horse meat and cucumber with E coli: scandals
in which Romania was accused unjustly»
17.
18. Employers ask for compensation due to the
image damage in the horse meat
scandal.What measures will take the EC?
• Romanians didn’t do anything wrong and did not sell
horse meat as a beef. The French company Spanghero,
as European authorities have established, is the one that
actually started the scandal by committing the fraud.
• Romania was unfairly wrinkled by this scandal,
because there was no fault.
• "We seek to inform very well in France and in other
countries that in Romania, we respect the European
standards, and that the listed companies have
defrauded" says Daniel Constantin, Minister of
Agriculture.
20. • "Romania does not have to agree all the time to sit with his head in
the ground." This is the premier Ponta reaction which, in an
interview with CNN, said the culprits who sold horse meat as a beef
should be punished harshly.
• "It’s not an usual scandal, is a very serious problem, because we
take very seriously the confidence of European consumers," said
Victor Ponta.
• "Fortunately, according to the survey and the results, even to the
journalistic investigation, it was revealed that all the companies in
Romania have met the established standards" contained the
Premier.
• '' I scrupulously avoided to blame someone. But unfortunately,
some countries are involved in what appears to be an international
conspiracy'' said British Environment Secretary.
• So far, nobody explicitly says that Romania is part of this conspiracy.
• Accusers did not have rushed to apologize to Romanian producers.
21. 20th february: A new scandal of horse meat
mislabeling comes to the light.
The scandal is moving to Romania
22. • After the British and French got mad at us and accused
us unjustly that we have sold them the product, our
authorities have discovered horse meat labeled beef in
Romania . It was ment for the stores in the country.
• NSVA (National Sanitary Veterinary Authority) said the
meat lot found in a storehouse in Ilfov was intended for
consumption into the national market, rather than
intra-community commerce, that way «it can not be
made a connection between the isolated case of Ilfov
and the situation in other EU member countries.»
23. Greece accused Romania for
exporting horse meat labeled as beef:
«We are always the one to blame »
• The European horse meat scandal brings Romania back
in the center of accusations. This time, Greece claims
that discovered horse meat in packages of frozen beef
imported from Romania.
• The scandal erupted after the Greek authorities for
nutrition announced that they discovered horse DNA in
samples of frozen beef. Of the 26 samples analyzed two
came out positive: meat labeled as beef was actually
from horse.
• The two samples were from a total amount of 1064
pounds of meat from Romania.
• 27 february
25. • Greek authorities say that the meat was
delivered to Greece in the form of "beef"
and "beef loin" in frozen packages and did
not got to be sold. Our authorities confirm
that the products were delivered by a
slaughterhouse in southern Romania that is
currently checked.
• National Sanitary Veterinary Authority
claims that the checks so far revealed no
irregularities.
• «We are guilty of Service. When a horse
meat case comes positive, everyone refers
to Romania. We are in alert for three weeks,
we are checking all the units, have given
this , we have very specific data, we know
all the lots, it is verified the traceability on
all lots for the past two years. As proven in
the other cases, it is a false alert and
probably in this case it is a matter of
counterfeiting labeling. Currently no
deviations were noticed in this regard, »said
Mihai Turcan, president of NSVA.
26. March 12th :Horsemeat scandal:
Exports of horse meat and beef
dropped dramatically
«The sales of horse meat, as they were, 6000-
7000 tons,we no longer expect to produce this
year. It was money that Romanian agriculture
needed. Sliced beef is no longer exported.
Everyone wonders: what if is horse meat?
although it was not our fault. Currently in
Romania, the beef is no longer exporting
almost at all,»said Tuesday the president of
National Federation Pro Agro, Alexandru
Jurconi.
