A Danish reporter covering the FIFA World Cup in Qatar was told by a Qatari official to remove his One Love armband this morning.
TV 2 Sport’s Jon Pagh was preparing to do a TV report in front of the Danish team’s hotel when the incident occurred.
Pagh can be heard telling the official: “I respect that you are telling me that, but I can’t take it off.
“Why is it not allowed? Is it because of the colours?”
The official said “yeah”, then held out a hand to cover the camera while the reporter continued protesting.
“This just says ‘One Love’. It’s just ‘One Love’. It’s just about respecting everybody,” Pagh said.
The official then appears to drop the matter, walking away from the exchange. The UK’s ITV report Pagh and his colleagues also left.
Speaking later to Danish sports magazine Tipsbladet, Pagh said: “For me it is not politics.
It’s human rights. It is an article of clothing which I wear and which in the Western world and according to all human rights I am allowed to wear.
“I really hope that no one takes this as an attempt to provoke anything. We are standing in the middle of the dark, 30 kilometres out in the desert. I didn’t think for a second that this could be a problem.
”
It comes after BBC pundit Alex Scott wore the same armband on-air inside a stadium yesterday, and is the latest in a string of incidents seen as statements in defiance of Qatar’s controversial human rights record. Gay and lesbian sex is illegal in Qatar.
Seven European teams – England, the Netherlands, Wales, Belgium, Switzerland, Germany, and Denmark – had planned on wearing the One Love armbands during games, but backed down after FIFA threatened on-field punishment.
Also today, Brazilian journalist Victor Pereira said he was approached because his flag, the colourful flag of Brazilian state Pernambuco, was mistaken for a rainbow community flag.
“We were approached because of the flag of Pernambuco, which has a rainbow,” he tweeted, in Portuguese.
“They took my cell phone and only gave it back to me when I deleted the video I had. ”
Denmark drew nil-all with Tunisia in their game this morning..
About Author
