The press conference was more successful then expected – attending were 26 media representatives. It focused on the sex workers census announced by the government for 2009. Bliss Without Risk used the opportunity provided by December 17 to highlight the problems with the census.

The group says that, given the stigma and discriminations sex workers are facing in the society, they will not be likely to participate in the census, unless they get something from it.  The organization has offered to the government the data that it has collected in the past 16 years. Its registry includes data on over 6000 people, but the project-leading ministry has not been interested in it.

The media interest was huge and dozens of reports followed the event, including by the national news service CTK and leading print and electronic media outlets: Dnes; Sip; Ceske Noviny. The story was even reported in-depth by the Slovakian broadsheet Sme. 

Bliss Without Risk organized an open day event on December 17, inviting all interested citizens to visit them and learn about their work.  The event attracted a number of university students this year. 

In the evening, a party was organized, attended by some 35 sex workers. It was promoted by the Bliss Without Risk’s sex workers outreach vehicle, which for days before December 17 was cruising the ‘hot spots” decorated by December 17 posters, and distributing the invitations.

A week before December 17 the New York Times published a story about the influence of the financial crisis on sex work worldwide:

Hana Malinova, director of Bliss Without Risk, a prostitution outreach group, said she feared the current credit crunch was pushing more poor women into prostitution, since they could make more money selling their bodies — about 120 euros for a half-hour session at some upscale sex clubs in Prague — than flipping burgers at McDonald’s.

Even with the downturn, she added, prostitution was far more resilient than other industries, though the downturn was discouraging adultery.

“An Austrian farmer from a remote area who is not married will still cross the border to the Czech Republic looking for sex,” she said. “On the other hand, the recession is helping to keep husbands at home who might otherwise be cheating on their wives” – reads the New York Times article.

More information:

Hana Malinova, Bliss without Risk, Hana.Malinova@seznam.cz
Bliss Without Risk website: http://www.rozkosbezrizika.cz