The World Cup has forced the media to scrutinise the poor LGBTQ+ rights record of the Gulf state. How can coverage continue beyond the sports event?
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The biggest sporting event in the world is now taking place with the football World Cup 2022 in Qatar. With so many eyes on the country, a lot of media attention is focused on the poor human rights, migrants' rights and LGBTQ+ rights record.
It is the latter one we zone in on in this episode: Qatar is an Islamic country where same-sex relations are illegal and punishable with jail time. This is easy to criticise, but the truth is attitudes towards LGBTQ+ communities in the UK, especially within sports media, also deserve scrutiny.
We speak to freelance sports commentator, presenter and journalist Michael McCann this week about keeping up the pressure of demanding better coverage of LGBTQ+ communities on both sides.
McCann is bisexual and he worked for Qatari sports broadcaster beIN Sports between 2018 - 2019. He came out a year later. McCann speaks about how, like many LGBQT+ workers in the country, he kept his sexuality hidden while working there.
He reveals to us that there is an LGBTQ+ community in Qatar living in hiding, who he managed to make connections with and pass some of them to journalism colleagues for news stories. The bottom line is that there are many important stories to be told long after the World Cup is lifted - if we employ the right approach.
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