ARCHIVES: Bahrain
Bahraini authorities lifted a ban on the main opposition newspaper Sunday after its three top editors resigned to save the paper from a campaign to muzzle anti-government media and crack down on the Shiite opposition in the Sunni-ruled Gulf nation. Al-Wasat , the country's most popular newspaper, did not appear Sunday after Bahrain's Information Ministry ordered it to close down. Al-Wasat's online edition was also blocked. The state-run Bahrain News Agency accused the paper of "unethical"... MORE
A CNN crew was detained Wednesday in Manama while interviewing a prominent Bahraini human rights defender, according to a Twitter posting by the network and a CPJ interview. The detentions come amid a recent series of repressive actions by the Bahraini government, which included Wednesday's arrest of a well-known blogger. Anti-press actions were also reported in Egypt, Syria, and Libya, CPJ research shows. CNN tweeted this evening from Bahrain that a crew had been detained at the home of Nabeel... MORE
Reuters television producer Ayat Basma and cameraman Ezzat Baltaji were released on March 28 after being held for two days but Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has meanwhile learnt that two other journalists were arrested on March 27. The London-based Syrian Human Rights Monitoring Centre identified them as Doha Hassan , who works for Orient TV and several websites, and Zaher Omareen . RSF has been told they are being held at the General Directorate for State... MORE
Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) is very worried about the fate of Stéphane Lehr , an experienced French freelance photographer working for Polaris Images, who went missing early Sunday afternoon shortly after arriving in Benghazi with a French TV crew. The head of Polaris Images, Jean-Pierre Pappis, said the last contact with Lehr was a message received at 7 a.m. New York time (1 p.m. in Libya). “He sent us an email saying: ‘I have just arrived in Benghazi. I am... MORE
Jamal Al-Sharaabi , a photographer working for the local daily Al-Masdar , was one of the fatal victims when government security forces opened fire Saturday on a peaceful demonstration in Change Square, outside Sana'a university, killing at least 30 people, according to Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF). Aged 35 and the father of four children, Sharaabi is the fourth journalist to be killed in the course of the wave of protests that have been rocking the Arab world... MORE
Bahraini authorities expelled a CNN reporter and briefly detained another international reporter on Wednesday amid an intensified crackdown on political unrest. New York-based pressfreedom group Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) condemned the Bahraini government's ongoing obstruction of news media and called for authorities to allow journalists to cover this story of international import. Elsewhere in the region, anti-press attacks and harassment continued to be reported in Morocco, Yemen... MORE
Armed assailants stormed the Manama printing facility of the Bahraini independent daily Al-Wasat early Tuesday morning, damaging the press and hindering production of the day's edition. The Committee to Protect Journalists condemned the attack, which came just as military contingents from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates were enlisted to help contain political unrest in the kingdom. In Saudi Arabia, meanwhile, the government withdrew the accreditation of Ulf Laessing , a senior Reuters... MORE
Authorities in Yemen and Bahrain are continuing to obstruct news coverage of ongoing political unrest, the Committee to Protect Journalists said on Monday as it called on the two government to allow journalists to work without reprisal. In Yemen, at least six international journalists were expelled since Saturday, according to news reports and CPJ interviews. In Bahrain, security forces and plainclothes men attacked an Al-Wasat photojournalist covering a demonstration in the capital, Manama... MORE
Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has collated an overview of the acts of violence against journalists and other media freedom violations that have taken place in the pasts few days in Northern Africa and the Middle East. The countries concerned are Libya, Algeria, three Gulf states (Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and Qatar), Yemen, Iraq (including Iraqi Kurdistan) and Syria. LIBYA Jean-Marie Lemaire , a French journalist working for the 24-hour TV news station France 24,... MORE
The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has called on journalists in Bahrain to put their unity above political wrangling that has divided journalists in the wake of protests movement for political changes in the kingdom. The Federation's call comes after revelations that some journalists have been blacklisted over their alleged links with the ruling royal family. "We urge journalists to avoid targeting each other and to stick to their ethical principles of journalistic independence... MORE
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