Uproar in Norway after the arrest of two journalists reporting in Qatar
A view of Doha, the capital of Qatar (illustrative image).
GIUSEPPE CACACE AFP
Text by: RFI Follow
2 min
Political and sporting circles in Norway protested on Wednesday November 24 after the temporary detention in Qatar of two Norwegian TV reporters who documented the controversial preparations for the FIFA World Cup in the emirate.
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According to their employer, the public channel NRK, Halvor Ekeland and Lokman Ghorbani were arrested, without explanation according to the channel, shortly before their departure from Doha on the night of Sunday to Monday, a year to the day before the kickoff of the 2022 World Cup. They were released after about 30 hours, without any charges being brought against them, and landed in Oslo on Wednesday morning.
"
The arrest of NRK journalists in Qatar is unacceptable,
" responded Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre. "
A free press is decisive for a functioning democracy
," he wrote on Twitter, saying that this underscored
the importance of the Nobel Peace Prize
awarded this year to two champions of freedom of information, Filipina Maria Ressa and Russian Dmitri Mouratov.
In Qatar, the authorities for their part claimed that the two journalists had been indicted for an unauthorized trespass on private property.
“
The team was allowed to film wherever they wanted in Qatar.
They were given all the filming permits they had requested before their arrival and they were offered to meet with senior government officials and third parties,
”she said in a statement.
"
These freedoms do not however prevail over the application of common law, which the team knowingly and willfully violated
", they specified.
The very critical Nordic countries
Already critical when the World Cup was awarded to Qatar, the Nordic countries are at the forefront of international pressure aimed at improving the working conditions of migrant workers in the emirate.
NGO reports accuse Qatar of exploiting foreign workers, especially in the construction of stadiums for the next World Cup.
The country vigorously rejects these criticisms, stressing that it has reformed its labor law and introduced a minimum wage.
►Also read: Qatar: the suffering of foreign workers, forgotten builders of the 2022 World Cup
The idea of a boycott of the World Cup for a time had the wind in its sails in the Nordic country but a vote in the Norwegian Football Federation had finally ruled out this possibility in June.
Third in Group G behind the Netherlands and Turkey, the Norwegian selection ultimately did not win its qualification ticket.
(
with AFP
)
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