The Newspaper had always taken advantage of the dispute with Iran to incite Internal Sectarian hatred without governmental objection
The Newspaper had always taken advantage of the dispute with Iran to incite Internal Sectarian hatred without governmental objection
The Bahrain Center for Human Rights expresses its deep concern regarding the administrative decision of closing the daily Akhbar Al-Khaleej newspaper, without any court order or stated reasons. In a news piece published on Monday 22/6/2009 in all the local Bahraini newspapers, it said that the Bahraini authorities ordered to withhold the issuance of the Bahraini Akhbar Al-Khaleej newspaper until further notice. The newspaper, which is the oldest in Bahrain, mentioned that the authorities informed the editor-in-chief Mr. Anwar Abdul-Rahman on the dawn of that day of the decision to stop the publication of the paper due to issues relating to violating the press law. It, however, did not state the article being violated or the type of violation that is referred to. Yet, the government allowed the newspaper to be released again on the next day and which was Tuesday 23/06/2009.
It is believed that the reasons for withholding the mentioned newspaper, and which is closely related to the cabinet of ministers and the prime minister, is related to the article of the Bahraini Shura Council member Mrs. Sameera Rajab in which she launched a scathing attack against the Shiite religious leaders and the political leadership in Iran. Bahrain had a few months earlier lodged a strong protest to Iran over an article published by one of the Iranian writers in which he claims that Bahrain belonged to Iran. This article created great tension in the Bahraini Iranian relations. However, the Iranian government disowned the opinions expressed in the article and it attributed it to the freedom of press provided in Iran, and which it cannot interfere with. It is believed that the Bahraini writer’s article was going to cause embarrassment to the Bahraini authorities if it ignored it, at the time when it had launched a campaign on Iran due to the above mentioned article and which one of the Iranian newspapers had published.
The chairman of the board of directors and editor-in-chief of the mentioned newspaper is Mr. Anwar Abdul-Rahman, and he is a Bahraini citizen of Persian origins. This newspaper adopts a clear opposing position to the political system in Iran and to its foreign and internal policy. Usually the extent of criticism reaches the Shiite religious beliefs and ridiculing the religious figures and leaders. The writer Sameera Rajab was known for her support for the former Iraqi regime and its president Saddam Hussein, and for her acute writings and seminars, not only against Iran but against the Shiite sect in Bahrain and their religious beliefs and political figures, where she often used to incite the government against them and stirs sectarian hatred against them. Her articles nearly caused sectarian conflicts and strives in the past, by accusing the Shiite to be linked to Iran and that they get trained abroad on weapons, and by doubting their loyalty to their countries, and accusing them of hiding weapons in their religious and social centres that, however, she was not able to prove any of those accusations. Sameera Rajab is a Bahraini citizen of Shiite origins, and the king had honoured her by appointing her as a member in the Shura Council, and the Prime Minister Sheikh Khalifa Salman Al-Khalifa had singled her out from the rest of the reporters and writers with a special meeting whose news and photos was published in the local newspapers. This was considered a sign of the authority’s support to Sameera Rajab’s extreme positions against the opposition and especially those of the Shiite people.
The BCHR considers the decision of closing the newspapers an arbitrary act due to transgressing the judiciary, yet, it even did not take into account the applied condemned law number 47 of the year 2002 regarding the regulation of press and printing, and which article 84 states that the Ministry of Culture and Information should warn the newspaper before taking any action against it.
The BCHR would like to recall what the Universal Declaration of Human Rights stated and which was adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1948, and especially article 19 which states, “Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers”, and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which was adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1966, states the same principles in article 19. At the same time, the BCHR would like to draw attention to article 20 of the same Covenant and which states, “Any advocacy of national, racial or religious hatred that constitutes incitement to discrimination, hostility or violence shall be prohibited by law.”
Based on the above, the BCHR calls for the following:
1. To consider the closing of the Akhbar Al-Khaleej newspaper arbitrary and to ensure non-repetition;
2. To stop the punitive, administrative and superior decisions and to always seek decision from court to be the criterion;
3. To stop using the political opinion and press writing to incite sectarian strife and contempt for others or their religious beliefs, and to transmit and implant the spirit of tolerance between the people away from their religious, sectarian and ethnic backgrounds.