Organisers of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar have apologised to journalists after officials threatened to break their camera during a live broadcast.
Qatar’s Supreme Committee for Delivery & Legacy, which is responsible for the running of this year’s football tournament, said the crew were “mistakenly interrupted”.
Journalists from the Danish station TV2 were broadcasting from a street in Qatar’s capital, Doha, on Tuesday evening when Qatari officials approached them and threatened to smash their camera equipment.
In footage, one of the journalists, Rasmus Tantholdt, can be heard asking an official: “Mr, you invited the whole world to come here, why can’t we film here it’s a public place?”
Mr Tantholdt showed officials his media accreditation as they interrupted his broadcast but they continued to dispute his freedom to film.
He is also heard saying: “You can break the camera, you want to break it? You are threatening us by smashing the camera?”
The channel said on its website: “The team was bluntly told that if they didn’t stop filming, their cameras would be destroyed. This is despite the fact that TV2’s team has acquired the correct accreditations and reported from a public place.”
In a statement, the Supreme Committee for Delivery & Legacy said: “Upon inspection of the crew’s valid tournament accreditation and filming permit, an apology was made to the broadcaster by on-site security before the crew resumed their activity.”
The incident adds further controversy to the World Cup in Qatar, which has been boycotted by some fans over human rights concerns, including the country’s treatment of LGBTQ people and migrant workers.
Denmark, which is among the 32 teams competing in the tournament, has criticised Qatar over human rights abuses.
Its players will wear shirts that pay tribute to the migrant workers whose deaths have been linked to the construction of World Cup infrastructure in the Gulf state.
