On the anniversary of protests in Bahrain on 14th February, security forces fired tear gas and threw grenades at protestors trying to retake at the epicenter, the Pearl Square, and arrested dozens of people.
President of the Bahrain Centre of Human Rights, Nabeel Rajab, who led a demonstration towards the Square was among those attacked and also briefly detained. After his release several hours later, he updated his Twitter feed with just one word: “Resistance.”
On the morning of 15th February, his tweet said that he had been accused by the prosecutor for encouraging people to protest and taking part in an unauthorized gathering.
Bahrain’s Internet Freedom Status: 2010
Internet Freedom Status: Not Free
Population:1.3 million
Internet Penetration: 54%
Substantial Political Censorship: Yes
Bloggers Arrested: Yes
Press Freedom status: Not free
Bahrain is the second most connected country in the Arab world with one of the highest internet penetration rates. This tiny island got its internet connection in the year 1995. Just two years later, in 1997, an internet user was arrested for the first time, for sending information to an opposition group outside the country.
In 2002, the Ministry of Informaton (MOI) made its first official attempt to block websites comprising content that was critical of the government. Today, over a 1000 websites are blocked in Bahrain.
The county also has one of the highest mobile phone penetration rates in the region with 118 mobile phone subscriptions per 100 inhabitants. I-Phones, though available, are still very expensive. Use of Blackberry services is on the rise, however the authorities in April 2010 banned users from sending news bulletins through text messages, and failing to comply with the rule, individuals and newspapers would threatened with legal action.
Access to the video sharing, social networking and microblogging sites like YouTube, Facebook and Twitter is available, although individual pages on each of these platforms are often blocked.
The Arabic regional portal and blog hosting service Al-Bawaba has been blocked since 2006, and the Bahraini blog aggregator Bahrainblogs.org that served as a means for Bahraini bloggers to interconnect was blocked in 2009.
Online media is Bahrain is governed by the Press and Publication Law of 2002 which lays down prison sentences of up to five years for publishing material that is offensive to Islam or the King, or that is perceived as threatening the State security or monarchy.
Transgressors should be hanged, said one of the members of the Parliament referring to people breaking the law of sending news through Blackberry services.
The 1000 websites that have been blocked are shut down because they were critical of the Bahraini government, Parliament and the ruling family. In practice, many websites run by the national or international non-governmental (NGOs) organisations are inaccessible. The Arab Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI) and the Bahrain Center for Human Rights (BCHR) have been blocked.
The MOI has also issued orders to ban material about certain cases that are concerned with members of the royal family, such as the alleged anti-Shiite conspiracy and a case involving alleged corruption by a government minister.
This fact is a little surprising. Google Earth was briefly rendered inaccessible so that Bahraini citizens could not scan through the estates of the royal family. It was unblocked after intense public and media pressure.
Bahrain’s constitution does recognize the freedom of expression, however, like every coin has two sides, the law is accompanied by a phrase, “under the rules and conditions laid down by law,” which essentially negates all the freedom granted.
No comments:
Post a Comment