Posted on 23rd of November 2009
Front Line is deeply concerned that the BCHR and its president, human rights defender Nabeel Rajab are being subjected to a media harassment campaign started on the 13th of November 2009 following the publication of a BCHR report in relation to human rights organisations that allegedly are linked to the government of Bahrain. The BCHR report alleges that a number of organizations have received financial support from government-linked sources.
Posted on 23rd of November 2009
Front Line is deeply concerned that the BCHR and its president, human rights defender Nabeel Rajab are being subjected to a media harassment campaign started on the 13th of November 2009 following the publication of a BCHR report in relation to human rights organisations that allegedly are linked to the government of Bahrain. The BCHR report alleges that a number of organizations have received financial support from government-linked sources.
Nabeel Rajab
The media harassment campaign against BCHR was reportedly started by the Arabic Akhbar Al-Khaleej and its English version, Gulf-Daily News (GDN), and then followed by Alwatan newspaper.
On the the front page of Akhbar Al-Khaleej on 13th November, there were a number of false accusations made against human rights defender Nabeel Rajab. The first accusation was positioned at the top right corner of the first page and entitled “With my money and not the soft talk”, in which the editor of the Akhbar Al-Khaleej stated that:” In the recent election carried out in CARAM Asia, Nabeel Rajab won the membership of the its board due to the financial and political support offered by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards and Intelligence in Iranian Embassy in Malaysia”. The Akhbar Al-Khaleej went further to state that: “Nabeel won the highest number of votes from the organizations which received Iranian money from him”. Then on lower right corner of the first page of the same issue,and in an article entitled “For refusing indicting Iran, Nabeel Rajab was ejected from a European Conference”, the Akhbar Al-Khaleej editor falsely mentioned that:”The Bahrain Kingdom Forum published a picture distributed by news agencies showing the expulsion of Nabeel Rajab, president of BCHR, in a European conference yesterday because he refused to condemn Iran, Ahmedi Nejad , the executions, and the latest killings of Iranian human rights activists”.
This last accusation was also published on the Gulf-Daily News version of the same day on its front page under the tilte.,”Activist expelled from forum”, repeating the same claims that were written in the Akhbar Al-Khaleej.
The allegations against Nabeel Rajab and the BCHR would appear to be crude fabrications, Front Line is not aware of any of the newspapers having published any information to substantiate their allegations. CARAM Asia has stated that: “as a regional organisation comprised of some 34 members from 17 countries, Coordination of Action Research on AIDS and Mobility Asia (CARAM Asia) remains astonished by the recent accusations of Gulf News Daily and Akhbar Al-Khaleej and their malicious and unfounded attacks levelled at our newly elected Chair Nabeel Rajab, the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights (BCHR) and by extension CARAM Asia. The recent allegation of links between CARAM Asia and the Iranian government remain absurd and baseless. Neither BCHR nor CARAM Asia has ever taken a solitary cent from the Iranian government or any of its wider bodies and such facile accusations only seeks to demonstrate the lengths that certain publications will go to smear those committed to increasing the rights of all people. Furthermore, we would like to note that not once has our organisation been contacted by the aforementioned publications, casting light on the credibility of the journalists and the publications themselves.”
In Alwatan newspaper and for three consecutive days starting on 17th of November 2009, there were statements by some members of the organizations who are mentioned in BCHR recent documentary report, calling for “the prosecution of members of the unregistered” organizations that aim to on spoil the Bahrain image” considering their acts to be an “internal and external state security crimes” .
On November 18 and 19, 2009, the same newspaper attacked the BCHR and its president stating that “they are providing false information on Bahrain to the foreign community”.
It’s important to mention that in October 2008 Front Line also deeply concerned when human rights defender Nabeel Rajab was subjected to a similar media harassment following his participation in a n a briefing held on 15 October 2008 in Washington DC., USA, concerning the “Impact of Political Reform on Religious Freedom in Bahrain,”
Front Line is concerned that the repeated media harassments against BCHR and its president, human rights defender Nabeel Rajab, is due to their legitimate peaceful activities in defence of human rights in Bahrain.
Front Line
23/11/2009
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