Freedom of expression deteriorates further in Bahrain
As the health of imprisoned human rights defender Abdulhadi Al-Khawaja worsens, so do the conditions for the country’s media
“Things are getting worse”, says WAN-IFRA, the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers in a review of the past year’s deteriorating status of Bahrain’s media.
The past few weeks have seen an increased international focus on the case of Danish-Bahraini citizen and long-time IMS-partner Abdulhadi Al-Khawaja who is set to commence his 70th day on hunger strike on Wednesday 18 April.
In their efforts to cover the urgent situation in the country, the Bahraini media has been met with threats, harassment, and torture over the past year.
“Journalists and human rights defenders have faced military trials, life imprisonment, torture, harassment, and in some cases even death whilst in the custody of the Bahraini authorities”, says WAN-IFRA.
Failure to implement changes
Despite the Bahraini King’s proclamation of ‘sweeping and broad’ reforms, the regime has ‘failed to make significant changes’ since the November 2011 report of the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry, says Amnesty International in a report released on Tuesday 17 April (PDF).
The human rights organisations calls on the Bahraini authorities to respect and protect the right to freedom of association, assembly and expression. With reference also to Al-Khawaja and other imprisoned human rights defenders the King is urged to ‘immediately and unconditionally release all prisoners of conscience’.
In the ongoing push to have Al-Khawaja released, a group of 48 freedom of expression groups and organisations including IMS, called on Tuesday 17 April the Bahraini King, to ‘free detained activists, bloggers and human rights defenders and drop all charges that violate the right to peaceful expression.’
Commenting on the case, Danish daily Politiken said in an editorial that ‘sometimes revolutions are simply necessary’:
“Sooner or later, dictatorships crumble. Some people accept repression for a long time. No-one accepts repression forever.”
Al-Khawaja is protesting against a lifetime sentence handed down to him in September 2011, after he was accused of “plotting to overthrow the regime”. During his imprisonment he has also been subjected to torture.
Al-Khawaja is a longtime IMS-partner and led the IMS-supported Arab Working Group’s monitoring of the Bahraini media’s coverage of the country’s elections in October 2010.
