Qatar Threatens to Arrest British Journalist for Filming Disorder at World Cup

Daily Mail journalist Kathryn Beth has found herself in an unpleasant situation during the ongoing FIFA World Cup in Qatar. The journalist filmed the massive disturbances that occurred before the Ghana-Uruguay match, after which security personnel surrounded her, threatened to arrest her, and compelled her to delete the footage, reports Armsport.am.

In her column for the Daily Mail, Beth recounted that Ghanaian fans were prevented from entering the stadium due to the organizers’ fault, resulting in a scuffle. Women and children were thrown into panic as African fans jumped over barriers and stormed the stadium. The British journalist recorded all of this, sent it to her editorial office, and approached the stadium when she was surrounded by eight security staff. “I kept asking why I was being detained; one of the men finally said that they saw me filming and that I didn’t have the right to do so. I explained that I was an accredited journalist and showed them my electronic badge, but they replied that I needed to have a paper version of the permit on me,” Beth wrote in her Daily Mail column.

“Then they announced that I had two options: either delete the video or they would take me to the police. I agreed to delete the video, but they took my phone and started checking my emails and messages to ensure that I hadn’t sent the video to anyone. Luckily, I had managed to quickly delete the message I sent to my editorial office,” she added.