As the Norwegian newspaper “VG” reported on Wednesday, two Norwegian journalists were arrested on Sunday in Qatar after they had reported during a live report on the situation of guest workers before the 2022 World Cup.
The two journalists from the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (NRK) had recently worked on a live broadcast on Norwegian television about the working and living conditions of guest workers in Qatar. Exactly one year before the start of the tournament (opening game on November 21, 2022), the sports policy journalist Halvor Ekeland and the photographer Lokman Ghorbani wanted to provide a renewed overview of the situation of the workforce on the construction sites of the Arab Emirates. This was recently criticized repeatedly by Amnesty International .
You can see the fear in their eyes.HALVOR EKELAND, NORWEGIAN JOURNALIST
During the live coverage, Ekeland expressed concerns about the treatment of guest workers. “There is a big discrepancy in this country. Some of the workers are doing terribly. You can see in their eyes that they are not doing well. They work very hard all day,” he commented on the local situation. He would particularly remember the workers who did not want to speak to media representatives. “When I ask her about an interview, you can see the fear in her eyes,” said Ekeland, describing these encounters live on Norwegian television.
“We were arrested in the hotel on Sunday evening, taken to a police station and stayed there for several hours,” said the sports journalist, describing the course of events. He and Ghorbani would now “have several meetings with the NRK, find out some things and come back with a statement in due course”. According to the officials, the two had “knowingly and intentionally” violated the law by entering and filming private property without permission. In the course of this arrest, according to the Norwegian authorities, images that they had taken in a migrant labor camp were deleted.
Critic of regime imprisoned shortly before interview
According to research by the NRK, this was not the only incarceration. Just hours before a scheduled interview with the state broadcaster, a well-known critic of the regime, Abdullah Ibhais, was taken into custody by the police. Ibhais, who used to work for the World Cup organizing committee as head of media and communications, was sentenced in April to five years in prison for corruption, which he appealed. The organizing committee responded to a critical report by the Norwegian football magazine “Josimar” on the proceedings with a demand that “false and defamatory information” be removed from the article.
Gjermund Eriksen, director of the Norwegian broadcaster, criticized the events sharply. For him there was an “attack on the values of the free, independent press”. He now expects a corresponding reaction from the government of the Scandinavian state, which narrowly missed the World Cup qualification on the last day of the game : “I expect that you ( the Norwegian government, editor’s note ) the importance of a free and independent press and Emphasize the importance of freedom of expression. “
The NRK will also come into contact with FIFA, since it “is untenable to prevent the media from carrying out free and independent reporting on one of the largest sporting events in the world”.
