Halvor Ekeland and Lokman Ghorbany who are both journalists working for the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (NRK) faced detention in Qatar. Qatari authorities arrested two Norwegian TV journalists because they were reporting on the conditions of the country’s World Cup workers.
Football players and fans (football news) alike have protested against Qatar, human rights’ violators, hosting the World Cup in 2022.
The reason for this is the poor, dangerous working conditions the Qatari are subjecting their construction workers and immigrants to.
Reportedly, more than 6000 immigrant workers have died in Qatar since they won the right to host the World Cup.
And now, two Norwegian television reporters are under arrest for trying to cover this exact issue in Qatar.
Qatari Authorities Arrested Two Norwegian TV Journalists
According to The Guardian, Halvor Ekeland works for NRK’s sports department, covering important topics such as politics in sports.
And Ekeland was most recently reporting on the Qatar regime’s treatment of migrant workers. Accompanying him was another NRK journalist, Lokman Gorbani, who was working on the case as an experienced photographer.
However, the local police in Qatar arrested the team on Sunday evening.
Indeed, these law enforcement authorities detained the journalists’ team for 36 hours before finally letting them come back home. The Norwegian reporters thus suffered arrest and only got release to go straight back to their own country on Tuesday.
NRK’s managing director, Thor Gjermund Eriksen, said Qatar had not informed the public broadcasters of the reasons for the detention.
Eriksen considers the arrest and the apparent lack of cause an attack on freedom of the press and free speech.
“It is unacceptable for the media to be prevented from practicing free and independent journalism at one of the world’s largest sport events,” the managing director said in a statement.
“We will be discussing how this should be handled with FIFA,” Eriksen continued.
