One good hoax deserves another

Media stunts are not just fodder for one medium to attack another – as the NZ Herald has gloatingly done today with its front-page coverage of the whaling “lobbyist” trick played on TV One’s Breakfast by rival channel C4’s The Jono Project.

But on page 2 of the same issue the Herald regurgitates one of the more durable media myths: that major sporting events result in large-scale sex trafficking and an invasion by thousands of foreign prostitutes.

The story first surfaced in 2006 in connection with the World Cup in Germany and, as I wrote in an Editor’s Insight back in March, has been thoroughly debunked – though it surfaced again in this report by The Independent (UK), which is no longer part of the IPN/APN stable since its sale to Russian tycoon Alexander Lebedev.

This report vastly boosts the number of visitors (equating them to the 2.2 million who have bought tickets) and saying the incoming prostitutes will be 100,000. These figures are not sourced though they appear to come from the same kind of places as the false German claims did.

In any case, in my item, called “Wags and whoppers,” the story was kicked off again in South Africa with David Bayever, deputy chairman of South Africa’s Central Drug Authority, saying:

"It's horrific and very concerning. We've been told by event organisers that they are aware of about 40,000 new prostitutes being recruited to come into the country for the World Cup. The women are expected to travel from countries all over the world, especially from eastern Europe. Money talks, and if you're a sex worker then there is going to be money in South Africa in 2010."

This 40,000 figure, the same as circulated in 2006 for Germany, was later described by medical journal The Lancet as “hysterical media hype.” Writer Samuel Loewenberg reported:

“It is no surprise for us that the numbers are not so high,” says Heike Rudat, a spokeswoman for the German Union of Criminal Investigators. Germany already has so many prostitutes, say experts, estimated at nearly 400 000, that there was simply no need to increase the population, especially for such a short period. In addition, high-security conditions during the games make it especially difficult for criminal sex traders.

A later report, at Spiked Online, quotes official EU reports backing up The Lancet’s findings. Some three million fans visited Germany during the Cup, well short of the 450,00 foreign visitors expected in South Africa, I wrote.

Since then, the number of estimated visitors has dropped dramatically, as reported in a subsequent Editor’s Insight about “Fifa’s no shows.”

It said: “… latest estimates are that half a million fewer overseas fans are coming than expected. That drop from an initial hopes of 750,000 to just 200,000, according to the Observer, is a severe disappointment to South Africa’s tourism industry."

Click here for an earlier commentary on the whaling hoax.