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Security forces in Qatar detained two journalists from Norwegian television station NRK for over 30 hours.
They apparently also deleted footage that the reporters had collected when they tried to report on the problems of the guest workers in the run-up to the 2022 World Cup.
The Qatar government later accused NRK journalists Halvor Ekeland and Lokman Ghorbani of "intruding into private property and filming without a permit" when the two returned to Norway on Wednesday after their arrest.
The Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store called the arrest of the journalists "unacceptable".
"It is untenable that the media should be prevented from practicing free and independent journalism at one of the biggest sporting events in the world," said the director general of NRK, Thor Gjermund Eriksen, to the Norwegian media.
"We'll come back to how we're going to deal with FIFA," said Eriksen.
According to the broadcaster, journalists Ekeland and Ghorbani were in Qatar to report from the country a year before the 2022 World Cup.
On Monday, they were supposed to conduct an interview with a critic of the regime, who was apparently arrested a few hours before the interview.
On the way to the airport, the journalists themselves were arrested after reporting on the situation of guest workers on a live broadcast.
Qatar's government said in a statement that Ekeland had applied for a filming permit but was not granted it before entering the premises.
Qatar, like other Arab Gulf states, where the expression of opinion is strictly regulated, requires journalists to approve their work and filming.
The human rights violations against guest workers have been an issue again and again since the World Cup was awarded to Qatar.
In the past few years there had been several researches by the media and human rights organizations that reported glaring grievances.
Just a few days ago, in a new report on the situation of guest workers in Qatar, Amnesty International criticized that "progress has stagnated and old abusive practices even reappeared".
Despite legal reforms, workers cannot easily leave the country or change jobs.
Wages are often still not paid or paid too late.
In addition, guest workers still have little access to justice, for example to demand wages.
They are still not allowed to organize in a union.
World Cup is of political importance to Qatar
In February, an evaluation by the Guardian caused a sensation, according to which more than 6,500 guest workers had died in Qatar since the World Cup was awarded ten years ago.
The newspaper was referring to inquiries made to the governments of the countries of origin.
According to the Guardian, the actual death rate is likely to be considerably higher.
About two million guest workers live in Qatar.
The emirate, like other states in the Gulf region, relies on them in order to be able to live up to its ambitions.
A large part comes from the poorer countries India, Nepal, Bangladesh and Pakistan, but also from other Arab countries.
Qatar itself only has around 300,000 citizens.
The emirate got rich from oil and gas, but in the medium term it wants to focus on other branches of the economy and gain political importance.
Investments in sport, such as hosting the soccer World Cup, also play a role.
ara / AP