NRK journalists Halvor Ekeland, right, and Lokman Ghorbani, left, are welcomed back by head of NRK sports Egil Sundvor upon their arrival from Qatar, at the airport in Gardermoen, Norway. Security forces in Qatar detained two journalists from Norwegian state television for over 30 hours and deleted footage they gathered at a migrant labor camp as they tried to report on worker issues ahead of the FIFA 2022 World Cup, authorities said Wednesday. Qatar's government later accused Ekeland and Ghorbani of “trespassing on private property and filming without a permit” as the two returned early Wednesday to Norway following their arrest. Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere responded by saying their arrest was “unacceptable.”(Hakon Mosvold Larsen/NTB Scanpix via AP) NRK journalists Halvor Ekeland, right, and Lokman Ghorbani, left, are welcomed back by head of NRK sports Egil Sundvor upon their arrival from Qatar, at the airport in Gardermoen, Norway. Security forces in Qatar detained two journalists from Norwegian state television for over 30 hours and deleted footage they gathered at a migrant labor camp as they tried to report on worker issues ahead of the FIFA 2022 World Cup, authorities said Wednesday. Qatar's government later accused Ekeland and Ghorbani of “trespassing on private property and filming without a permit” as the two returned early Wednesday to Norway following their arrest. Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere responded by saying their arrest was “unacceptable.”(Hakon Mosvold Larsen/NTB Scanpix via AP)
COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — Denmark’s Union of Journalists is urging all Danish journalists not to travel to Qatar to cover next year’s World Cup, saying the Arab country cannot be trusted.
“I do not trust Qatar,” said Allan Boye Thulstrup, the union’s deputy leader. “I am afraid that the sources critical of the government risk disappearing or going to prison for a long time, and that they will not be treated nicely in prison,” he added, speaking Wednesday to industry magazine Journalisten.
“It is of no use that Qatar first promises the press can work unhindered and that they then arrest journalists,” Boye Thulstrup said. His union has more than 18,000 members.
The statement came as a reaction to the detention by Qatari security forces of two journalists from Norway, and the deletion of their footage gathered at a migrant labor camp as they tried to report on worker issues ahead of the FIFA 2022 World Cup.
