Qatari officials threaten to DESTROY a Danish reporter’s camera while he is LIVE on TV

Qatar’s Supreme Committee has rushed to apologize to Danish broadcaster TV2 after one of their journalists was threatened by security personnel during live broadcast.

TV2 reporter Rasmus Tantholdt, covering from Qatar days before the opening match of the FIFA World Cup, was speaking as part of a live broadcast when he was approached by security personnel who had appeared on a golf cart.

It soon became clear that he was not welcome to film and he was soon threatened with having his camera vandalized and destroyed.

The clip, which went viral on social media, showed Tantholdt switching to English to seek clarification on where he allegedly misinterpreted the rules for filming in Qatar.

“You invited the whole world here. Why can’t we film? It’s a public place,” he said.

He quickly presented his press credentials on his phone and confirmed their permission to film, but as a man struggles with the camera’s lens, a security guard claims the camera will be destroyed if they don’t stop filming.

The Danes show their press accreditation and say they have permission to film. Then the guards follow with a threat. If they don’t stop filming, they’ll destroy the camera.

“You can break the camera,” he added. ‘Do you want to break it? Go ahead. You threaten us by breaking the camera.’

Danish reporter Rasmus Tantholdt was interrupted during a live presentation on TV in Qatar

Security officials disagreed that he was filming and soon threatened to destroy his camera

A security guard tries to explain that he cannot film despite his accreditation pass

Speaking from Qatar to Norwegian outlet NRKTantholdt confirmed that he had since received apologies from delegates in Qatar, but the fact that he was stopped during a live broadcast has caused him some concern.

“I don’t think the message from the Qatar summit has reached all the guards,” he said.

‘That is why you can say that some have misunderstood the situation, but at the same time it says a lot about what it is like in Qatar. That’s where you can be attacked and threatened if you report as a free media.’

“This is not a free and democratic country,” he added. “My experience after visiting 110 countries in the world is: the more you have to hide, the harder it is to report from there.”

Qatari officials (pictured) arrived on a golf cart as the live broadcast was underway

Tantholdt was seen showing his press credentials before claiming he doesn’t need a license

Qatar has been heavily criticized and scrutinized for human rights violations and its attitude towards the LGBTQ+ community since it won the rights to the 2022 World Cup 12 years ago.

It is also not the first time that reporters have had problems reporting freely and openly in Qatar.

Norwegian outlet NRK encountered its own problems last year when it reported from Qatar.

Two of their journalists, Halvor Ekeland and Lokman Ghorbani, were arrested and subsequently imprisoned in Qatar over claims the pair had filmed on private property.

They were held for about 30 hours before being released and sent back to Norway.

In November last year, Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre described the treatment of reporters in the Gulf state as ‘unacceptable’.

“A free press is crucial to a functioning democracy,” he added.

It seems that there are still problems for reporters several days before the start of the tournament.

The Qatari Supreme Committee later issued an apology after the clip went viral on social media

American writer Grant Wahl had his own run-in with security personnel after being ordered to remove a photo he had taken at the media center.

Describing the story on his Twitter account, Wahl wrote: “I took a picture of the Qatar World Cup slogan on the wall of the media center today – and a security guard came up to me and demanded I take it off my phone. remove. Is this World Cup going to work like that?’

He was told that a ‘picture is not allowed’ before protesting that he was just taking a picture.

“Please remove it, sir,” was the reply.

The World Cup kicks off on Sunday as hosts Qatar take on Ecuador.