Nieuws

Qatar belangrijke geldbron van AIPS

 De AIPS ontvangt jaarlijks één miljoen dollar vanuit Qatar. De Italiaan Gianni Merlo, voorzitter van de AIPS, bevestigt dat in NRC. Daarmee vormt QSPC, de organisatie van sportjournalisten in Qatar, een belangrijke inkomstenbron voor de AIPS. Jaarlijks gaat er 2 miljoen dollar om in de AIPS.

Daaruit wordt ook het prijzengeld betaald voor de jaarlijkse AIPS Media Awards.  Merlo wijst in NRC ook op andere bestedingen. ,,Met het geld krijgen jonge journalisten de kans om zich onder de hoede van de AIPS te ontwikkelen. Die hadden anders geen kansen gehad.” Ook kan de AIPS volgens Merlo meer slagkracht ontwikkelen om voor journalisten op te komen als die in de verdrukking raken.

In NRC schetst Jan Keulen oud-correspondent in het Midden-Oosten voor verschillende Nederlandse media, de positie van QSPC binnen Qatar. De financiering van de AIPS noemt hij een ‘typisch staaltje soft power van Qatar: banden aanhalen, inspelen op westerse waarden’. Hij signaleert dat de website van QSPC het overheidssjabloon kent. Keulen: „In het algemeen geldt in Qatar dat het lastig is om te zeggen waar de staat eindigt en de particuliere sector begint.”

De AIPS is namens de media de officiële gesprekspartner van sportorganisaties zoals wereldvoetbalunie FIFA en het Internationaal Olympisch Comité (IOC). Ook geeft de organisatie de enige sportperskaart uit die vrijwel wereldwijd wordt erkend. Er zijn 160 sportpersbonden aangesloten, waaronder de Nederlandse Sport Pers (NSP).  De NSP draagt jaarlijks circa 5.000 euro (als bijdrage aan de afname van AIPS-kaarten ten behoeve van de internationaal werkende collega's) af aan de AIPS. 

Het bestuur van de NSP gaat de AIPS uitleg vragen over de financiële banden met het perscomité van Qatar. ,,Autonomie en onafhankelijkheid zijn een groot goed, zeker voor journalistenorganisaties’’, aldus NSP-voorzitter Marco Knippen. ,,Deze situatie roept vragen op. Ook richting winnaars van de Media Awards, die zich gecompromitteerd zouden kunnen voelen.

Reactie AIPS-president Gianni Merlo

 

Mr. Marco Knippen, president of NSP

I have seen what you have written on your website regarding AIPS, our Awards and QSMC, the association of sport journalists of Qatar.

I have had the opportunity to speak to you and to Gio Lippens and I have offered a full explanation of everything, because there is nothing to hide, but it looks that you have not listened.

Later I have seen that in your report on your website there are some macroscopic mistakes, that somebody can have the impression that were done not in good faith. I think that this impression is wrong, but how can you explain that you have written that we spend 2 millions a year, when it is not true. I remind you that there is a finance commission with Flemming Olesen (Den), Petz Lahure (Lux) and Yannis Theodorakopoulos (Gre) that controls everything, and then the final audit is done by Ernst&Young.

You and Gio Lippens have received our budget reports every year at the Congress, where you were present last time and Lippens before, but it looks that you have not read them, because everything is written in detail. Was this mistake done in purpose to send around a kind of soft fake news? I cannot believe that you have done this on purpose.

You have also written that NSP is paying yearly around 5000 euro for the AIPS cards. I think that it is better to clarify this, because you have ordered 102 cards and you paid 4080 plus the 120 euro each year for the membership, in total 4320. I remind to the colleagues who do not remember that the 40 euro for each card is the payment valid for two years. I hope that on the balance of NSP this sum does not appears two times, if it does, it means that somebody is putting this money somewhere else… I cannot believe this, because for me it is impossible that this can happens in NSP, but what it is written is a macroscopic mistake.

QSMC is partner in the AIPS Sport Media Awards that is part of a cultural project, but it is not influencing any of our decisions or is trying to in any field. We have signed a contract very strict that guarantees our full independence and there is no space for any interference. You can check with our EC members and with the Jury, in which is present also a Dutch journalist of high level: Jaap De Groot.

Regarding what you have written about the colleagues who have won an award and who could feel uncomfortable to receive this money, I can tell that nobody has told us that he or she has felt so. Only Bart Hinke has written that two of them have felt a kind of embarrassment, but he has not disclosed the names. He has sent to all a mail telling to everybody that he would promise the anonymity in the case they would express embarrassment. But how is it possible to offer anonymity, we are not a criminal organization… are we? They could tell us openly, we are colleagues, honest colleagues. I have invited mr. Hinke to come in a zoom meeting with many of winners, so if he wanted he could express his opinion and ask openly their opinions, there was nothing to hide, he said that he was interested, but at the last moment he sent a mail telling that he would not…. Is it this transparency?

Now I ask you to publish this mail on your website, because usually in our country the law gives the possibility to replay when something that was written before was wrong.

Thank you very much for your attention,

Kind Regards, Gianni Merlo