Manama: Bahrain's information ministry yesterday denied reports that it had granted Al Vefagh, the daily Arabic newspaper of the official Iranian news agency, the rights to publish in Bahrain.
"The claims about issuing a circulation licence to the Iranian newspaper are untrue and lack credibility. We have never received a request from Al Vefagh," said Abdullah Yateem, the information undersecretary for printing and publishing in a statement to the media.
The official was responding to a conservative Bahraini lawmaker who has warned the information minister against issuing the licence.
"We have heard that the information ministry has granted the Iranian newspaper Al Vefagh the licence to circulate in Bahrain. This is an ominous decision because it will have numerous negative impacts," Jassem Al Saeedi said on Saturday in a press statement.
"The information minister is fully accountable to the parliament for such a deplorable and worrying move. There is no interest in its presence in Bahrain and we do not want to open the door to new problems," he said.
Al Saeedi cautioned that the newspaper would be exploited for purposes that are not linked with the vision and mission of genuine journalism.
Mosayeh Naimi, the editor of Al Vefagh, last week told the London-based Asharq Al Awsat that his newspaper had obtained circulation licences from Bahrain, Oman and other Arab countries.
"There is a lack of genuine communication between Arabs and Iranians. Iran needs to address Arabs without intermediaries and the press is more effective than satellite channels," Naimi was quoted as saying.
