First, Bahraini authorities hit human rights defender Nabeel Rajab with charges for writing an oped in the New York Times, and now they have charged secular opposition leader Ebrahim Sharif after an interview he gave to the Associated Press a few days ago.
Stifling negative press is a classic hallmark of a repressive regime, and Bahrain is increasingly touchy about anyone revealing its ugly truth. Up until mass protests for democracy broke out in 2011, and even for a while after, Bahrain was relatively accessible for media and human rights organizations. Now it’s virtually impossible for us to get in.
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