Zaha Hadid, image © AFP

The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) has announced yesterday that the globally-renowned architect Dame Zaha Hadid will receive the 2016 Royal Gold Medal, the first woman to be awarded the prestigious honour in her own right- thereupon, BBC invited Zaha Hadid to the show to mark this announcement but it turned into another tragedy that points out an important issue on journalism. Zaha Hadid cut off BBC Radio 4’s programme mid-interview after presenter Sarah Montague claimed 1,200 migrant workers had died building Hadid’s World Cup stadium in Qatar. 

Montague showed a 2013 report by the International Trade Union Confederation, which included the claim that over 1,000 migrant workers had died in Qatar on World Cup construction projects in 2012-13. A graphic illustrating the figures later went viral on social media but it was wrong because the work on the Al Wakrah Stadium did not begin until 2013. Upon Montague's scary question Zaha replied that ''there haven’t been any problems, actually, I have to put you right. There hasn’t been a single problem in our stadium in Qatar'' and she added that ''yes, absolutely not. You should check your facts… I can’t talk about the planet, I’m not talking about the entire world, I’m talking about my site – [and there has been] not one.'' Finally, Hadid said that “Let’s stop this conversation right now. I don’t want to carry on,” she said, before ending the call.

Al Wakrah Stadium, image © ZHA

Zaha Hadid's attitude was not just about the tragic conditions in Qatar and speculations about Al Wakrah Stadium and its site, Hadid was also marking an important point about journalism and its preliminary research about interviewee and her projects because if you do not ask proper questions, journalism does not reveal facts or get real criticism. This does not require a broder investigation needed to be done by spokesman and Sarah Montague could easily find that Hadid had sued against critic Martin Filler, after Filler’s review of Rowan Moore’s book “Why We Build: Power and Desire in Architecture" for the New York Review of Books included a scathing section on Hadid. As related to this article, Filler had said she had shown “no concern” for the death of construction workers in Qatar, where she designed a stadium for the 2022 World Cup and Filler had admitted to a significant error in the article he wrote, The New York Times has reported. This fact could easily be found by Sarah Montague after a quick research but it didn't work out. 

Please listen the full conversation of Dame Zaha Hadid and Sarah Montaque from here.

Seven hours after the interview, the BBC issued a statement that read: "The ITUC’s figure of 1200 construction deaths which was quoted on this morning’s programme refers to the whole of Qatar, and not specifically to the main World Cup stadium site. We are sorry we didn’t make this clear in this morning’s interview with Dame Zaha Hadid. We are happy to accept there is no evidence of deaths at the main stadium site."

While the claim was inaccurate, the issue of migrant workers' rights in Qatar is a source of concern for campaigners. 

Mustafa Qadri, Amnesty International's Gulf migrant rights researcher, said: "Rather than pretending there isn’t a problem of chronic labour abuse in Qatar, key figures in the World Cup-led construction boom like Zaha Hadid should be calling on the authorities to do more - like finally reform the kafala sponsorship system so that migrant workers are free to choose their employers, leave the country, live and work in dignity, and seek their rights without fear of facing further abuse. 

"It’s important to remember that migrant labour abuse in Qatar goes well beyond the issue of deaths. An estimated 1.6 million migrant workers are subjected to the kafala sponsorship system that puts them in a position of forced labour, because they can’t freely change jobs or leave the country, and risk abuse for complaining about unsafe work practices, poor accommodation, late or low pay, or other abuses." 

A spokesman for Hadid said: "Since works began at the Al Wakrah Stadium site in 2013, the construction crews have completed over 1.2 million working hours on the site with no accidents causing lost-time. The authorities in Qatar managing the Al Wakrah Stadium site operate to the highest levels of workers’ health, safety and welfare."

Here you can find the full transcript of conversation:

Sarah Montague: One of your buildings is the Qatar stadium where there have been considerable problems, not least the number of deaths 

Zaha Hadid: There haven’t been any problems, actually, I have to put you right. There hasn’t been a single problem in our stadium in Qatar 

Montague: More than 1200 migrant workers have died there... 

Hadid: Absolutely not true. We sued somebody for writing that and it had to be withdrawn from the press, it is absolutely inaccurate 

Montague: It is very widely reported there have been a huge number of… 

Hadid: It’s absolutely untrue. 

… 

Montague: This was a report first published in 2013 by the International Trades Union Confederation 

Hadid: I’m sorry to say it was removed, I sued someone in the press for it and they had to withdraw and apologise 

Montague: So you can categorically state there have been no deaths in the building of your… 

Hadid: Yes, absolutely not. You should check your facts… I can’t talk about the planet, I’m not talking about the entire world, I’m talking about my site – [and there has been] not one 

Montague: Okay, well, that’s fascinating to clear that up... 

Hadid: It’s not fascinating 

... 

[on the design for the Tokyo Olympic stadium, which has since been dropped by the Japanese government] 

Hadid: This is a very serious story and it should be reported accurately, and somebody should be interested in it because it's a scandal and it should be reported properly. 

Montague: Okay, we are intersted, can you tell us why it's a scandal - what happened? 

Hadid: Well, it's a scandal because we won this competition almost three years ago, it was an international competition entered by many Japanese architects and we won it... we were awarded this project, we worked on it, we are partners with a Japanese company... 

Montague: Okay, and the Prime Minister - we will have to just speed up a little bit... 

Hadid: Don't ask me a question when you can't let me finish it. Then I won't say anything 

Montague: We really welcome you to make the point. If I can just make it clear, the Japanese Prime Minister pulled the plug on it, as we understand it, because of soaring costs - it was a $2bn price. Are you saying that's wrong? 

Hadid: No, but listen to me - let's stop this conversation right now. I don't want to carry on, thank you very much [hangs up] 

Montague: Dame Zaha Hadid, thank you for talking to us