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Green politician Rößner: “The broadcasters have every opportunity to combine their reporting with calls for donations”
Photo: Sebastian Gabsch / Future Image / IMAGO
The football World Cup in Qatar is not only controversial because of the human rights situation in the host country and the ecological balance of the tournament - Qatar is also heavily criticized because of the situation of guest workers.
Several European football associations, trade unions and human rights organizations are demanding that the world football association Fifa and Qatar set up a fund of almost 450 million euros.
The sum corresponds to the total prize money of the World Cup and is intended to benefit the relatives of injured or dead workers.
The German football association DFB has also joined this demand.
The public radio and television stations in Germany should call for donations to the aid fund in their programs - this is the demand raised by the Greens politician Tabea Rößner.
»After eleven European football associations want to campaign for a compensation fund for guest workers in Qatar, the radio and television stations could support them and call for donations.
The broadcasters have every opportunity to combine their reporting with such calls,” the media politician and chairwoman of the Bundestag’s Digital Committee told SPIEGEL.
According to the sports information service, Fifa boss Gianni Infantino is said to have "not been fundamentally reserved" about the aid fund at the meeting with representatives of the delegation trip by Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD).
Qatar has so far rejected this request, saying the call for a joint fund with Fifa is purely a "publicity stunt," said Qatari Labor Minister Ali bin Samich Al Marri.
Broadcasters are reluctant
When asked by SPIEGEL, ZDF said that no appeals for donations in connection with the World Cup in Qatar were currently planned.
Instead, ZDF refers to its reporting: "ZDF reports extensively on the associations' discussions on compensation funds and fundraising campaigns by fans."
The ARD also only refers to its own reports on the fate of the World Cup guest workers: "Should a compensation fund be set up by European football associations, the ARD will also report on it."
ARD and ZDF have secured the broadcasting rights to 48 of 64 games.
As the SPIEGEL reported in 2015, both broadcasters paid a total of 214 million euros for it.
In addition, Telekom will broadcast 16 games exclusively.
Calls for donations "would be particularly good for the public service broadcasters and would be more than the famous symbolic gesture," says Rößner.
Before she was elected to the Bundestag, she was an editor at ZDF.
There she was responsible for reporting on the also controversial 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing for the children's news »logo!«.
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