That's why I cannot love them!

...because of a wrong image of Romania that they're sending to the world, and back to us.

A little update: apparently, the picture with the Gypsy old lady was removed from the European quiz, this measure being taken probably, following the great amount of critics received about it. So... mission accomplished!

Here is my little "love" letter to them.

Dear BBC,
I would like to make a comment related to the image representing Romania on the EU election quiz section published on Sunday, 7th of June, on your website.
First, I don't want to question your good-intentions or the general knowledge you have of Romania, but I can assure you that the outfit of that poor old Rrom "lady" is not a traditional one, not even of the Rrom people, not to mention of the Romanian people. (There you are some of the traditional Romanian outfits: http://www.eliznik.org.uk/RomaniaPortul/
Second, there is a very big difference between Romanian people and Rrom people, and my saying this has nothing to do with racism. That lady is relevant for Romania just as much as any poorly dressed representative of a minority is for any other country in this world. This ethnicity is all over the world, and they were not born in Romania. And the poverty, neither.
You should know better than this...
And if you don't, please read here the definition and something about the history of the Rrom (or gipsy) people.
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rrom "
I think it's very interesting to highlight the fact that these people, of Hindu origin, firstly appeared in England, in the 16th century (detail mentioned on the Oxford English Dictionary as well). And, long before that, the Romanian nation was born from the mixture of the Roman (again, nothing to do with Rrom) and Dacian people.
So, no, the Romanians are not Rroms (or Gypsy) and neither vice-versa. Why are you misleading all your readers and encouraging them to imagine things that are untrue?
Putting the moral aside, the journalistic information presented or suggested by the mentioned photo from your quiz is completely incorrect and misleading. I know that for sure, because I am a journalist myself.
And until the majority of Romanian citizens will be represented by any other people than Romanians, I think that you should stop suggesting the contrary. Just like never suggesting that the Indian, Polish, Spanish, Romanian people or any other kinds of immigrants or minorities are representative for the UK.
Thank you!

And here is their answer:

Thank you for your e-mail. There was no intention to cause offence by
including this photograph. However, as the item was about traditional
outfits, we felt in retrospect that this was not perhaps the best
example and we have now replaced it.

Best wishes,

BBC News website