18th, 19th, 20th January 2013

BAHRAIN MEDIA ROUNDUP

up in parts of the Gulf kingdom. The protests were the latest attempt by demonstrators to confront security forces in the capital, which was the hub of an uprising nearly two years ago. Bahrain's majority Shiites have been seeking a greater political voice in the Sunni-ruled country, which is the home to the U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet. More than 55 people have been killed in the unrest. Read More constitution. Protesters overtook Pearl Square for several days, but were beaten back by security forces, who destroyed the square rather than leave it as a rallying mark. Since then, the movement has been met with the destruction of Shi'i mosques, the blackmailing of doctors and human rights activists, and detainment of opposition members. Read More Amnesty International (AI) [advocacy website]. AlMuhafda, the acting deputy head of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights (BCHR) [advocacy website], was arrested in November [JURIST report] during an unauthorized protest. After being released without charge, Al-Muhafda was arrested again in December during a clash between protesters and the government in Manama, Bahrain's capital. Read More the Gulf Cup of Nations being hosted in the Sunniruled kingdom.

Bahrain forces fire tear gas in capital clashes

Anti-government activists in Bahrain say police have red tear gas and stun grenades to disperse hundreds of protesters in the Gulf kingdom's capital, Manama. There were no immediate reports of injuries in Friday's clashes. Other demonstrations later sprung

Bahrain police disperse anti-regime protest

Bahrain police on Friday red tear gas to disperse Shiite protesters who took to the streets of the capital Manama chanting antiregime slogans, witnesses said. The demonstration coincided with the nal football game in

"Down (King) Hamad," yelled protesters who attempted to march in small groups in the narrow alleys of central Manama, as riot police red tear gas canisters and stun grenades, said witnesses. Police arrested several protesters, including at least one woman, they reported. Read More The protest comes one day after the release of Yousif alMuhafda, a leading human rights activist arrested last month, pending a trial over charges of disseminating false information through Twitter. Demonstrators are seen in videos posted online running through a thick cover of tear gas smoke down narrow alleys while chanting for the downfall of the government. Read More at a demonstration in December.

Police attack Bahrain protest, leading activist released

Several people were injured and others arrested Friday in Bahrains capital Manama when riot police attacked anti-government demonstrators with stun grenades, tear gas and pepper spray, activists said.

Human rights crackdown in Bahrain

Following increased repression of activists in Bahrain, Bahrain's oppositions called for a day of protests all over the country. The protesters called for February 14th as the beginning of their movement, marking the ninth anniversary of the adoption of the Bahraini

Bahrain court grants bail to activist Amnesty

Bahrain has released on bail a leading human rights activist who was arrested during a protest rally last month, Amnesty International said, as the Gulf Arab kingdom faces international criticism of its rights record. Sayed Yousif al-Muhafda, from the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights, was arrested

Bahrain court releases human rights activist on bail pending trial

A court in Bahrain on Thursday released [AI press release] human rights activistSayed Yousif AlMuhafda [ofcial Twitter] on bail pending trial for charges of spreading false news to harm security, according to

Unauthorised rallies and gatherings are banned in Bahrain, which hosts the U.S. Navy's Fifth Fleet and which has been in turmoil since pro-democracy protests led by its Shi'ite Muslim majority erupted last year. His lawyer said at the time that Muhafda was there to observe the march in Manama, adding that he was already being investigated on charges of spreading false news on Twitter. Read More

A mirage of rights
All these milder monarchies now risk slipping into the habits of the Gulfs worst human-rights offenders, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia. The 2011 crackdown by Bahrains rulers left nearly 100 dead and the island kingdom dangerously split between a Shia majority and loyalist Sunnis. Hopes

of respite rose when the government accepted the recommendations of an international panel for reform. It has implemented almost none of them, however, and Bahraini courts have continued to dispense cruel justice. This month the highest appeal court upheld life sentences for seven men accused of calling for anti-government demonstrations. Read More

at a demonstration in December.

Bahrain court grants bail to activist Amnesty

Bahrain has released on bail a leading human rights activist who was arrested during a protest rally last month, Amnesty International said, as the Gulf Arab kingdom faces international criticism of its rights record. Sayed Yousif al-Muhafda, from the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights, was arrested

Unauthorised rallies and gatherings are banned in Bahrain, which hosts the U.S. Navy's Fifth Fleet and which has been in turmoil since pro-democracy protests led by its Shi'ite Muslim majority erupted last year. His lawyer said at the time that Muhafda was there to observe the march in Manama, adding that he was already being investigated on charges of spreading false news on Twitter. Read More not be allowed to take his legislative seat.

Bahrain: The Forbidden Country

On a dusty football pitch in Bahrain, a convoy or rather, a pack of police 4x4s screeched into the crowd that had gathered there, scattering panicking protesters. As they circled at high speed, passing through the crowd, it was not clear if they were actively trying to hit the protesters, or just to scatter them, but what was clear was that it didnt seem to matter if they did. This footage was captured by French lm-maker and journalist Stphanie

Lamorr, who travelled to the tiny Gulf Kingdom on a tourist visa, before disappearing for a month, to live undercover and lm the pro-democracy protest movement in its battle against the authorities. To avoid the restrictions placed on journalists, the raw lm had then to be smuggled across the border and Fedexed to France, according to producer Luc Hermann who introduced a special screening at the Commonwealth Club on Tuesday night. Read More

Bahrain: A Lesson from the U.S. Civil Rights Movement

In 1966, African-American civil rights leader Julian Bond won election to the Georgia House of Representatives. However, his white colleagues refused to allow him to take his seat. He had participated in peaceful demonstrations as a member of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), which also opposed the Vietnam War. Because of membership in that radical group, they said, he should

Bahrain Police Attack on Woman Stirs Anger

As Bahrain was pretending to be secure enough to hold a regional sports event, its security men were attacking a woman protester in the middle of Manama, the capital. Last July, Zahra AlShaikh was released from prison after being detained and tortured. She stated, in an interview with Bahraini journalist in exile Lamees Dhaif, that the police wanted to force her to work

for them. This time, Zahra was arrested in a protest during the football tournament for Gulf countries, which was won by the UAE team. News, pictures, and videos of her arrest were circulated online on the day of the nal game, on January 18. Online, many refer to the Bahrain police forces as mercenaries - in reference to the foreign security forces and riot police from other countries brought in to crush the unrest in the country. Read More

Fast forward to modern-day Bahrain. The country has experienced a largely peaceful uprising for the past two years with people demanding civil and political rights. The city council of Muharraq, Bahrain, voted to expel ve of its elected members. They had signed a petition to the UN criticizing Bahrains monarchy and had participated in peaceful demonstrations. The sacked councilmen were all members of the Al Wefaq Islamic Society, the countrys largest opposition group. Read More Agency had issued a bogus news release which put words into my mouth I hadnt said and grossly distorted what I did say. The rst quote is, Despite those difculties, the kingdom is going ahead steadfastly toward achieving successful political reform. This is purely a fabrication; I said nothing of the sort. Read More

Misquoted and Distorted by Bahrain News Agency

A speech I gave at a public affairs forum here in Bahrain this week received a warm response from the two daily newspapers Al-Ayam and AlWasat. I was disappointed the following day, however, to discover that the governments Bahrain News

Bahrain Propaganda 101: Regime Looking for a Few Good Women on Twitter
One of the distinctive features of the political conict in Bahrain, soon after the start of the mass protests in February 2011, has been the intensity of the exchanges on social media. Opposition activists have been prominent in their dissemination of information and videos. Bahraini

ofcials have encouraged their supporters to put forward the regime case, and public-relations rms have been given large contracts to work with those ofcials on social media strategy. Meanwhile, senior opposition gures and human rights activists such as Nabeel Rajab and Said Yousif AlMuhafda have been imprisoned for their Tweets. This week the regime-linked Gulf Daily News posted an article on a new social media effort by the ruling AlKhalifa family: Read More who are arbitrarily detained in Bahrain. The 13 activists include Abdulhadi alKhawaja and Ebrahim Sharif, among others. The letter says, [The activists]have been charged and sentenced for exercising their right to freedom of expression and freedom of assembly, and asserts that, The les in the courts possession lack any decisive evidence linking the activists to the charges in question, including allegations that they sought to overthrow the regime by force. Read More

Depoliticizing Bahrain's Uprising: The Rhetoric of Human Rights

Various local, regional, and international parties concerned with Bahraini affairs have failed to translate the November 2011 report of the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry (BICI, also known as the Bassiouni report) into a political program similar to Yemens GCC Initiative. The United States and the Gulf Cooperation Council states had devised the Initiative in 2011 to quell the Yemeni uprising. Although the Gulf Initiative distorted and marginalized the results of the revolution in Yemen,

some argue that it also saved the country from turning into another bloodbath scenario like that in Syria. Nothing of the sort has happened in Bahrain, where the stakes simply are not as high for these same powers that have since condoned the violence that the Bahraini regime has meted out against the peaceful protesters. While the results of the BICI report were far from shocking for most Bahrainis, that the Bahraini regime-initiated inquiry actually documented horric human rights violations in the small Gulf country raised expectations of implementing accountability measures and political reform. Read More

NGOs: Obama Should Support Release of Bahrain Activisits

In a letter released today, the Project on Middle East Democracy joined theGulf Center for Human Rights and more than two dozen international NGOs to urge President Obama to take substantive action towards securing the immediate release of 13 activists and human rights defenders