Bahrain: Masking suppression of the media
As 14 February passed to mark the one-year anniversary of Bahrain’s on-going uprising, the country’s government continues to suppress the media
“Everything the authorities have done has been cosmetic. They put on a pretty face to look good to the international community instead of solving the country’s problems”, says Nada Alwadi, Bahraini journalist and co-founder of the Bahrain Press Association.
Alwadi was forced to leave the country after last year’s crackdowns on journalists and protesters following demonstrations in the country’s capital Manama. Alwadi, who worked for the country’s only independent newspaper Alwasat, was detained and interrogated for 14 hours following her coverage of the protests on Manama’s Pearl Roundabout in March.
“They threatened and insulted me and told me that everything I did and wrote would be monitored.”
As the protests continued, so did the suppression of the press and Alwadi decided to leave the country. Several of her colleagues and friends in the Bahraini media were arrested and tortured:
“A colleague of mine, the main correspondent for France 24 was arrested and beaten severely. I saw the marks all over her body.”
Cosmetic changes
In a recent report based on a mission to the country, IMS and five other press freedom organisations call Bahrain the forgotten country in the midst of other revolutions in the region. While all eyes are on the Arab Spring in Egypt and Tunisia and violence in Syria, no one seems to be paying attention to the attacks on civilians in Bahrain. Dropping 29 spots on Reporters Without Borders’ annual press freedom index to 173, Bahrain is now among the world’s 10 most repressive countries.
To support the journalists who remain in the country, Alwadi together with other exile Bahraini journalists founded the Bahrain Press Association in the autumn of 2011.
After a report detailing a number of human rights abuses was published from the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry (BICI) in November 2011, the authorities invited the press association and journalists in exile for a dialogue meeting. According to Alwadi, this was part of the authorities’ effort to try and look good to the international community:
“Inviting journalists in exile to have dialogue is a purely cosmetic change, and serves as propaganda. Things haven’t changed on the streets. People are still being shot and attacked with tear gas.”
“A freer hand cracking down”
With every radio and TV-channel under the government’s full control and no fully independent newspapers left, coverage of the situation inside the country is left to social media and exile journalists covering the events from abroad.
“Social media is really the only remaining independent source of information. Exile online media are also trying to cover what the domestic media cannot, but they are often blocked.”
Citing “security reasons” the government has been limiting and denying entry for international journalists for the past few months and leading up to the one-year anniversary, explains Alwadi:
“The authorities said they had received ‘too many’ applications from international journalists, and that they couldn’t let everyone in because they didn’t want to ‘jeopardise anyone’s safety’.”
The ban includes also New York Times correspondent Nick Kristoff who tweeted on 8 February: “Bahrain is keeping out journalists, not just me, to have a freer hand cracking down.”
A social media war
While denying access for the international press, the Bahraini government has hired PR firms and local supporters to polish its image online and started “a social media war”, says Alwadi. One of the techniques used by the government is to hire local Bahrainis to produce and spread fabricated stories on international websites and social media services:
“It’s very common, but it’s hard to prove that they are hired by the government. They put on this very nice face, and at the same time they silence local media and ban the international press.”
But Bahrain’s social media savvy youth are finding ways to circumvent the website blocks and continue to spread information online.
“The youth are always a little bit more advanced than the government and will always find a way to access the websites.”
Although the situation as a whole has gotten increasingly dire for Bahrain’s media since the uprising started a year ago, Alwadi is still hopeful:
“It’s refreshing to see journalists who are still on the ground maintaining their position even though they are attacked regularly and go in and out of jail. They believe in what they’re doing and they will not be broken anytime soon.”
For more information on the situation in Bahrain and the past year’s protests, see the report “Justice Denied in Bahrain: Freedom of Expression and Assembly Curtailed”, by IMS and a number of other organisations, which outlines violations of human rights related to the authorities’ handling of protests and demonstrations in the country since February 2011.
