Roger Pearce, the third journalist confirmed dead in Qatar after tragic death of Grant Wahl & Khalid-Al-Misslam
The FIFA world cup 2022, Qatar, has proven to be the most controversial football world cup ever played after the country's dismal record regarding labor rights, rights to women, the LGBTQ+ community, and journalists. FIFA awarded Qatar the crown to organize the football world cup knowing the country's poor Human rights record. This blot will remain on FIFA's career as long as this world will live with the great game of football. The world is witnessing these events even after FIFA's adaptation of the Human Rights policy in 2017 saying “FIFA will take adequate measures for their protection, including by using its leverage with the relevant authorities.”
Before Monday, two journalists died during the world cup match under mysterious circumstances. On Monday, the death of another journalist has been confirmed by the world cup authority during the match. This time misfortunate journalist's name is "Roger Pearce". He was the technical director of ITV sports and his death occurred on November 21 and was announced on ITV's broadcast ahead of the Wales-USA match. It raises some serious questions, who tried to downplay the death of a journalist who died on way back on November 21? and who is responsible for not letting the world the truth? Is it an individual or any conglomerate?
Roger was a very respected figure in the sports broadcasting industry. He was responsible for instrumenting the logistical planning and coverage of the Rugby World Cup, Football World Cup, and European Championship. He started his career with Grampian TV as an engineer after that he worked with other ancillaries of the ITV networks, such as TVS, and Meridian before joining ITV sports in 2001. His promising career ended at the age of only 65.
Before Roger Pearce's death, there were two other journalists who died under mysterious circumstances. One was photojournalist Khalid-Al-Misslam from "Al Kass TV" and the other became popular before his death because of wearing a rainbow t-shirt in support of the LGBTQ+ community, named "Grant Wahl". Grant Whal was even detained by Qatari officials to express his support to a particular community. Whal died mysteriously on December 10 during covering the quarterfinal match between Argentina and Netherlands. The same thing happened to Khalid, the Qatari journalist, who died suddenly during covering matches. Reportedly, he collapsed during the extra time of the match and couldn't revive. Previously, his brother raised serious concerns about his death but he later took back his words. Qatari officials paid their condolences to respective families for the family's loss.
FIFA has to set some discretion before awarding someone to organize such prestigious events. FIFA officials have also been accused of taking bribes from Qatar to allow them to organize the football world cup. Qatar is an authoritarian state with a giant state-sponsored media house Al-Jazeera, which has been accused by some to support some unlawful elements of the earth during the 2000s and even today. Recently, Qatari officials allegedly tried to bribe EU officials to clean their image among the world community, especially among the democratic community. Next time, hopefully, FIFA & other sporting bodies like Olympic organizing committee would like to keep Human rights violations and other rights violations in their account to award someone to organize such prestigious events.
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