Bahrain – Freedom of expression
In September 2008, the Bahrain Ministry of Information referred the owners of the National Edifice Forum (Muntada Al-Sarh Al-Watani) website to the Public Prosecutor, claiming that they had violated the press law. The Ministry threatened to shut down the site, well-known for publishing news and articles by political dissidents and statements from advocacy organizations, if they continued to violate the law.5 Citing the need to “combat obscenity on the internet and protect public morals,” the authorities blocked several websites with religious or political content.
On January 14, 2009, the Ministry of Culture and Information issued a decree that required all internet service providers to prohibit access to a list of blocked websites issued by the ministry.6
One week after the decree was issued some 25 websites had been blocked,7 the most prominent of which was the Al-Fasila blog maintained by human rights activist Abduljalil Al-Singace.8 The Ministry focused on links to articles by political opponents and reports from human rights groups, including several links on the social networking site “Facebook.”9 Blocking went as far as blocking the online translation engine, “Google Translate”, as well as Multaqa Al-Bahrain, Muntadayat Al-Bahrain, the National Edifice Forum, and dozens of political and news sites and web forums were blocked, as were the websites of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights (BCHR), the Arab Network for Human Rights Information,10 the news website Aafaq, and the Bahrain Eve blog. Overall, some 70 websites had been blocked three months after the decree came into effect.11
In early December 2008, the Public Prosecutor summoned Maryam Al-Sherooqi, a journalist at Al Wasat newspaper, and questioned her on charges of publishing an article, “that harms national unity and incites sectarian strifeamong the citizenry.”12 She was also accused of defaming the Civil Service Bureau in her article, which alleged that the bureau discriminates against citizens on the basis of sectarian and political affiliation. 13
On May 6, 2009, criticisms of the Civil Service Bureau provided the pretext for similar accusations against Abdul Hassan Buhussein, also a journalist at Al-Wasat, after he published a series of articles from September to November 2008 criticizing the bureau’s practices which he called a violation of constitutional principles. Journalist Lamees Dhaif was questioned in March 2009 for criticizing practices by the judicial authority in her articles in Al-Waqt.14
Abbas Al-Murshid, a journalist known for his writings on democracy and human rights, was assaulted on January 27 by members of National Security’s special forces, who injured him with a rubber bullet in his right eye while he was leaving a social center near his home. In April, Al-Murshid and his family were detained upon their return from Saudi Arabia and were mistreated by members of National Security, who forced Al-Murshid to give them the password to his laptop. The security personnel made copies of files
on his computer and confiscated several books in his possession.15
On June 22, Bahraini authorities issued an administrative decree banning the daily Akhbar Al-Khalij, without a judicial warrant, alleging that the newspaper had violated the publications law.16 Al-Ayyam newspaper also came under pressure when the Ministry of Trade and Industry filed four lawsuits against it because of reports it published about the Ministry’s performance. The Ministry considered the stories, “an affront, assault, and defamation of the Ministry’s image and an affront to the Minister.” 17
Pressure against the free flow of information extended to ordinary citizens. On May 14, security services arrested Hassan Salman and confiscated his computer and personal belongings, questioning him on charges of disseminating and publishing information about the National Security apparatus. A website had published a list of individuals with National Security who were responsible for most of the abuses documented in recent years by human rights organizations. The security apparatus pressured Salman into confessing to receiving money from rights activists and then into denouncing them for inciting him to leak information which was then used in a report about National Security abuses.18
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