L’Équipe is justified this Saturday, on behalf of the “information mission”, for the coverage it plans to do of the World Cup
Cazadieu explains that 30 journalists will cover the competition for all its media
L’Équipe is justified this Saturday, on behalf of the “information mission”, for the coverage it plans to do of the Qatar World Cup in November, given the growing controversy in France about the advisability or not of boycotting it due to violations of human rights there.
“As for the last (Olympic) Games in Beijing, L’Équipe will not boycott the World Cup in Qatar”, underlines the director, Jerome Cazadieu in an editorial that tries to respond to that debate that, as you recall, has been repeated on numerous occasions since the World Cup in Argentina was held in 1978 during the dictatorship of Jorge Videla.
Cazadieu He explains that 30 journalists will cover the competition for all its media and they will do so “without looking away from the issues that could anger the organizing committee or FIFA.”
In this regard, he recalls that in January a long report was published in the weekly magazine of L’Équipe by two of his journalists who managed to elude “the surveillance of the Qatari Government” to speak with workers who have worked on the infrastructure of this championship, “several” of whom have died due to working conditions.
“The mission of a media outlet is to go to all areas to tell the truth,” he replies to those who recommend not giving coverage so as not to give legitimacy to a regime that does not respect fundamental rights.
For the director of the leading French sports newspaper, “reporting cannot be done with white gloves or sitting in an office. Our fundamental mission is at stake, that of informing our readers.”
This week, among those who have entered the debate is the former French president, Francois Hollandeknown for being a football lover, who has said that if he were still head of state he would not go to Qatar” to express his discontent with the social conditions of the workers and the climate inconsistency.
Hollande He has pointed out that he does not ask for a boycott of soccer players, and that he is aware of the complicated situation in which the players of Paris Saint Germain (PSG), a club owned by Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund, find themselves.
Among the media, “Le Quotidien de la Réunion”, a small newspaper on that French island in the Indian Ocean, has announced that it will not cover the competition.
Amnesty International has launched a campaign to demand from FIFA and Qatar a reparation program for the “hundreds of thousands of migrant workers” whose human rights have been abused while carrying out construction and service tasks in stadiums, hotels, transport and other infrastructure necessary to host the tournament.
Knowing that FIFA will enter 6,000 million dollars thanks to this World Cup, Amnesty International and the NGOs that support him are asking for at least 440 million, a figure equivalent to the planned prize money.