On the anniversary of the suspension of the Bahraini newspaper “Al-Wasat”: the memory of silencing independent voices

On the anniversary of the suspension of the only independent newspaper in Bahrain, Al-Wasat, by the authorities in Bahrain, the Bahrain Center for Human Rights (BCHR) stresses on the importance of respecting freedom of opinion and expression and protecting the press and journalists. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights explicitly guarantees in its 19th article: “The right to enjoy freedom of opinion and expression”, and this right includes freedom to “embrace opinions without harassment, and to seek, receive, and impart news and ideas to others, by any means and without regard to borders.” By doing so, it guarantees the right of journalists to express their opinion and convey it through the media and other means of expression.

The Bahraini newspaper “Al Wasat” is a national press project that was suspended on June 4, 2017, by a decision of the Bahraini government. In this context, BCHR considers the decision to stop the publication of the newspaper only came for restricting the national word and within the procedure of concealing independent media voices.

BCHR regrets that this order is a violation of the right to freedom of expression, and it is an infringement on freedom of the media, and it is also in violation of Article 28 of the Bahraini Press Law of 2002 – Resolution No. 47 of 2002 – which stipulates that a court issue an order to suspend or close any newspaper .

The newspaper had ceased publication for a period of 2011 and its staff had been dismissed, and Karim Fakhrawi, the newspaper’s co-founder, was arrested in April 2011, before he died a week after his arrest after being tortured. In August 2015, the authorities suspended the newspaper for two days without explanation, then in January 2017 the publication of the electronic edition of the newspaper was suspended for 3 days, after publishing an article about the unrest in the village of A’ali in Bahrain.

In the international press freedom index for “Reporters Without Borders”, Bahrain fell 29 places to rank 173, and thus joined the ranks of the ten most closed and repressive countries in the world, while also placed on the list of “enemies of the Internet.”

In the context of the inability of journalists in Bahrain to operate normally, BCHR demands the halt of unfair trials against them. Where journalists and activists, as human rights activist Nabeel Rajab, face the stumbling of access to sources of information, being targeted on social media, and banned from traveling and arbitrarily arrested.