With only five days to go until kick off, the controversy surrounding the Qatar World Cup continues to grow with more and more issues and farcical situations starting to crop up, the latest of which has seen a Qatari security team threaten to destroy a journalist’s camera live on air.
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Danish TV presenter Rasmus Tantholdt wasn’t even filming anything vaguely secretive as he was just doing a segment at the side of the road when a Qatari golf cart rocked up and started acting pushy with him about why he was filming. Even after Tantholdt showed them his press accreditation, they were still really weird and menacing towards him, eventually threatening to destroy his camera before the clip ends.
You can watch the disturbing footage below and read Tantholdt’s comments about it below:
We now got an apology from Qatar International Media Office and from Qatar Supreme Commitee.
This is what happened when we were broadcasting live for @tv2nyhederne from a roundabout today in Doha. But will it happen to other media as well? #FIFAWorldCupQatar2022 pic.twitter.com/NSJj50kLql— Rasmus Tantholdt TV2 (@RasmusTantholdt) November 15, 2022
I don’t think the message from the top in Qatar has reached all the security guards.
Therefore, one can argue that there are some who have misunderstood the situation, but at the same time it tells a lot about what it is like in Qatar – that you can be attacked and threatened when you report as a free media.
We’ve received an apology which is nice enough, but this is clearly not a free and democratic country.
My experience after visiting 110 countries in the world is the more you have to hide, the more difficult it is to report from there.
Well I suppose this isn’t really anything that we didn’t know about Qatar for the last eight years but now that we’re so close to kick off, it really is all coming out. Expect loads more weird and dumb stories like this in the next few weeks. If you’re heading over there, make sure you’re careful.
For more of the same, check out these fake England fans roaming the streets of Qatar. That’s absolutely crazy.
