Dictator friends of the Labour government – the latest: BBC crew arrested in Qatar, equipment seized

You just have to love Muscat’s choice of friends and allies – they may not be liberal, but they have money and no annoying European principles and laws about corruption. Like many Maltese people, they don’t call it corruption. They think of it as, you know, commission, a finder’s fee.

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From the BBC News report:

We were invited to Qatar by the prime minister’s office to see new flagship accommodation for low-paid migrant workers in early May – but while gathering additional material for our report, we ended up being thrown into prison for doing our jobs.

Our arrest was dramatic. We were on a quiet stretch of road in the capital, Doha, on our way to film a group of workers from Nepal.

The working and housing conditions of migrant workers constructing new buildings in Qatar ahead of the World Cup have been heavily criticised and we wanted to see them for ourselves.

Suddenly, eight white cars surrounded our vehicle and directed us on to a side road at speed. A dozen security officers frisked us in the street, shouting at us when we tried to talk. They took away our equipment and hard drives and drove us to their headquarters.

(…)

An hour into my grilling, one of the interrogators brought out a paper folder of photographs which proved they had been trailing me in cars and on foot for two days since the moment I’d arrived. I was shown pictures of myself and the team standing in the street, at a coffee shop, on board a bus and even lying next to a swimming pool with friends. It was a shock. I had never suspected I was being tailed.

At 01:00, we were taken to the local prison.

(…)

In perfect English and with more than a touch of malice, he threatened us with another four days in prison – to teach us a lesson.

I began my second night in prison on a disgusting soiled mattress. At least we did not go hungry, as we had the previous day. One of the guards took pity on us and sent out for roast chicken with rice. In the early hours of the next morning, just as suddenly as we were arrested, we were released.

(…)

Other journalists and activists, including a German TV crew, have also recently been detained. How the country handles the media, as it prepares to host one of the world’s most watched sporting events, is now also becoming a concern. Mustafa Qadri, Amnesty International’s Gulf migrant rights researcher, told us the detentions of journalists and activists could be attempts “to intimidate those who seek to expose labour abuse in Qatar”.