“You feel often big pressure to do a story - even if the reality on the ground does not fit the story wanted by the TV company,” says one Romanian fixer.

Outside of major political upheavals like protests, referenda and elections, or tragedies such as the night-club fire Colectiv, western journalists fixate on two stories from Romania: migration and the Roma community - or ‘gypsies’.

One fixer was compiling a story about ‘gypsies’ who beg on the streets of Brussels. He had to find out where they live in Romania. He discovered they stayed in modest and clean houses in a normal village.

The editor did not want this. “It didn’t fit their story, so we had to find a poor neighbourhood,” he says.

Instead he searched for the worst slum possible to film, even though it had no connection to the ‘gypsies’ from Brussels.

“They have to make it sexy and attractive for viewers,” says the journalist.

But the ‘gypsies’ are not always seen as a pestilence that has invaded the EU. Journalists from the Nordic countries, like Norway and Sweden, have a different view. “They often go in the opposite direction when reporting on Roma,” says another fixer. “They state: ‘all is fine, there is no crime here, society in Romania has something against the Roma, they are victims of discrimination and live in very poor conditions’.”

In Romania, foreign journalists are always looking for a clear story, with a victim and a perpetrator. They rarely examine conflicting opinions.

“In the media, there is no place for nuance,” says one Romanian fixer. “Few reporters have the time to be right.”

Because Romania is a poor and developing country, western journalists can build a compelling story on little evidence.

Rich Peppiatt is a former journalist at UK tabloid The Star, and director of a tabloid-bashing film One Rogue Reporter . He reveals the editorial mindset on east Europe.

“For stories which are about issues in foreign countries - Romania, Bulgaria - it’s an attitude that [tabloid newspapers] can write what they want because - what are [Romanians and Bulgarians] going to do?" says Peppiatt. "They are probably not going to read it, and if they do, they are only some Romanians or Bulgarians. Are they going to complain? Are they going to sue? No. the standards of verifying become even lower [than at home]. They are even more dehumanised than anyone else because they are so far away. They don’t know how to complain, so it becomes: 'whatever - just write it'.”

Tabloid journalists are subject to time pressures and have to produce up to six stories a day. Usually this means at least one story targeting immigrants. And if the news desk has a lead on this topic - it has to be proven - and fast, by any means possible.

Peppiatt says there is classic tabloid technique to lend credence to a questionable story.

"Forget all the research to see if it is true or not, but call up an MP or a think tank, and say we are hearing there are these Bulgarians trying to smuggle themselves into the country on airships, for example, and they would provide a quote such as ‘that’s just another example of a failed immigration policy'," says the former reporter. "Now you’ve got a story, it doesn’t matter that nothing has happened. You can pick anything out of the air, but as soon as you have an official, that’s a story. You don’t need facts."