KEY DEVELOPMENTS
» Press freedom conditions hit their worst point since Bahrain gained its independence in 1971.
» Two journalists die in state custody; widespread arrests, assaults, detentions are reported.
The government waged a brutal multifaceted crackdown against independent news media covering the country’s months-long protest movement. Security forces subjected journalists to assaults, expulsions, detentions, politicized trials, prison terms, and lethal mistreatment in custody. Both international and local reporters were targeted: A journalist for the U.S. broadcaster ABC was beaten and his camera was confiscated in February; a photographer for the independent domestic daily Al-Wasat was beaten while covering a March protest. Authorities used live ammunition against protesters and reporters: The New York Times reported that two of its journalists came under helicopter fire in February.
KEY DEVELOPMENTS
» Press freedom conditions hit their worst point since Bahrain gained its independence in 1971.
» Two journalists die in state custody; widespread arrests, assaults, detentions are reported.
The government waged a brutal multifaceted crackdown against independent news media covering the country’s months-long protest movement. Security forces subjected journalists to assaults, expulsions, detentions, politicized trials, prison terms, and lethal mistreatment in custody. Both international and local reporters were targeted: A journalist for the U.S. broadcaster ABC was beaten and his camera was confiscated in February; a photographer for the independent domestic daily Al-Wasat was beaten while covering a March protest. Authorities used live ammunition against protesters and reporters: The New York Times reported that two of its journalists came under helicopter fire in February. The Ministry of Information expelled CNN correspondent Mohammed Jamjoom over coverage of the unrest, and detained members of a CNN crew trying to interview human rights activist Nabeel Rajab. In June, a court convicted two critical journalistic bloggers on a series of antistate charges and sentenced them to lengthy terms. Reports of torture and mistreatment of detainees were common: Two journalists, one a founder of Al-Wasat, died in government custody under circumstances authorities would not fully explain. Al-Wasat, the country’s premier independent paper, was in the crosshairs throughout the year: Armed assailants stormed its printing facility in March; the Information Ministry briefly shut the paper in April; and the government filed criminal charges against three senior editors for “false news” the same month. CPJ honored Al-Wasat founder and editor Mansoor al-Jamri with its 2011 International Press Freedom Award.
Excerpts from “From Arab Uprisings, Five Trends to Watch”
By Mohamed Abdel Dayem
Authorities have acknowledged that new media and citizen-generated content are permanent features of the media environment. Egypt’s ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces posts its communiqués to the Egyptian people on its Facebook page and nowhere else. More insidious, authorities and their surrogates have established an online presence to intimidate and silence dissenting voices among citizens, bloggers, and professional journalists. The practice is most pervasive in Syria, Bahrain, and Saudi Arabia, CPJ research shows. Those who are perceived as anti-regime are regularly harassed, threatened, or worse.
14 journalists and two media workers were killed in the Middle East and North Africa for work-related reasons in 2011. In Bahrain, two journalists died in custody from what the government called medical complications, although there were widespread allegations that the two had been tortured.
Assaults continued to take place in Bahrain, Syria, and Yemen in late year amid confrontations between restive citizens and repressive regimes.
And in the tiny Gulf kingdom of Bahrain, critics say the officially sanctioned Bahraini Journalists Association has long been ineffectual. Although the association disputes the assertion, a new group has emerged to represent journalists inside Bahrain and in exile. Nada al-Wadi, a board member of the new, London-based Bahrain Press Association, told CPJ that the government-approved body “never represented the real concerns of working journalists.” Al-Wadi’s group is trying to change that. Its inaugural project was a 60-page report detailing hundreds of attacks on local and international media between February and September.
“The Bahrain Press Association is not pro- or anti-opposition,” al-Wadi said. “It is pro-reporting.”
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