The Board of the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA), meeting in Hamburg, Germany, on 4 October 2010, urges the Bahraini government to take all necessary steps to reverse the ongoing crackdown against freedom of expression in the country.

On 4 September, Ali Abdulemam, a leading journalist was arrested on charges of spreading “false information.” His arrest comes amidst building repression against dissent. Abdulemam is the founder of the news website BahrainOnline, one of the most popular news media in the country. It was shut down on 5 September along with dozens of websites and online forums accused of “spreading poisonous ideas and damaging national unity.”


In an order issued on 27 August, Bahrain’s public prosecutor banned media from reporting on opposition members detained in an ongoing crackdown ahead of October parliament elections.

WAN-IFRA is concerned that the recurrent censorship and arrests are intended to silence critical media. It calls on the Bahraini authorities to lift the gag order immediately and to put an end to online censorship, arrests and intimidation facing journalists in the country.

http://www.wan-press.org/article18642.html