Qatari authorities confuse Bolivian broadcaster logo with LGBT+ flag and bar journalist

Bolivian journalist Roberto Acosta, who is covering the World Cup 2022 at the Qatar by the broadcaster Red Bolivia, went through a tense moment on Sunday, the 27th. The Qatari authorities confused the station’s logo with the flag of the LGBT+ community and approached the professional. On social media, Acosta spoke about what happened and reassured people who were asking how he was doing. “I have just been approached by the Qatari police. They believed that the Red Bolivision logo was an LGBT symbol, unbelievable,” he wrote on Twitter. “I was only released when a fourth policeman with common sense intervened,” said the journalist in response to a person who asked about the situation. In a statement sent to the portal El Deber, from Bolivia, he declared that “the atmosphere became tense, I realized what was happening when they started pointing to the logo. I had to take off my vest and microphone to explain it was a logo. A fourth policeman came and saw that they were making me uncomfortable and asked them to let me through. One of them ended up apologizing.” This is not the first case to be registered. Last week, a Brazilian journalist faced a similar situation, when Qatari police confused the flag of Pernambuco with the flag of the LGBT+ community🇧🇷

I have just been approached by the Qatari police, who believed that the logo @redbolivision it was an LGBT symbol 🏳️‍🌈 unusual pic.twitter.com/9akllOHBB4

—Roberto Acosta E. (@btoae) November 27, 2022