On the World Press Freedom Day, Bahrain Press Association publishes its tenth annual report: Bahrain 2019: A Cybercrime Syndrome

 

• Bahrainis’ exercise of their natural right to expression has become an electronic crime.
• The state has manipulated supreme meanings such as peaceful coexistence among the components of the society as justifications for pursuing media professionals and activists.
• Documenting 1595 violations of freedom of expression between February 2011 and December 2019
• 68 violations of freedom of expression and press freedoms during the year 2019
• The state is drafting a new bill that links penalties to the Anti-terrorism Law.

 

London, United Kingdom – 3 May 2020 – Bahrain Press Association “BPA”:  On the World Press Freedom Day 2020, Bahrain Press Association, a non-profit organisation based in London, publishes its tenth annual report: ‘Bahrain 2019: A Cybercrime Syndrome’

The year 2019 marked a milestone at the level of the Bahraini authorities targeting of media freedoms, freedom of expression, and the right to engage in journalistic work. It is one of the worst years when compared to all previous years, specifically since the beginning of the political and security crisis in early 2011.

The report’s title, Bahrain 2019: A Cybercrime Syndrome, is an expression of the security authorities’ overtly frantic vision of any healthy exercise of freedom of expression as a crime. Expressing opinions about the state and its policies is a cybercrime that, always and forever, aims to spread false news, split the national unity line, provoke sedition, threaten civil peace and social fabric, and to destabilize security in Bahrain.

The head of the Bahraini Press Association, Adel Marzooq, pointed out that Bahraini security authorities “have used lofty slogans such as civil peace and preserving the social fabric as flimsy justifications in targeting and arresting journalists, activists, as well as the judicial trials that Bahrainis endured over the past year.” He also said that, “we are facing a state of disease that is rampant in the security apparatus of the [Bahraini] state, portraying any expression of opinion in the cyberspace as a crime punishable by law.”

For Marzooq, the state, through this policy, is attempting to tighten its grip on the cyberspace after it had imposed complete domination over the local press and banned any form of political association in the country. . “Repercussions of this policy were not only limited to those considered by the state to be activists or political and human rights advocates but also included journalists and activists affiliated with pro-state groups,” Marzooq added.

Towards the end of 2019, the violations that Bahrain witnessed since February 2011 until the end of December 2019 amounted to a total of 1,595. Violations included killing and arrests, torture and ill-treatment, trials, defamation, obstruction of work, and promoting discriminatory-both political and sectarian-policies, and inciting hatred and violence in some cases.

The Bahrain Press Association has, over the past year, documented 68 cases that constitute violation of press and public freedoms such as the right of expression. In an unprecedented instance, it is criminalized to follow or “Retweet” posts of Twitter accounts that the authorities consider “provocative and seditious.” As such, Bahrain has become the only country in the world to take such action.

On 27 October 2019, the Cabinet started discussing a bill draft regulating the press and media, to be submitted to the parliament after its approval. About 25% of the articles of the new law stipulate penalties that journalists and the agencies they work in may face. About 20 articles were dedicated to regulating trials and penalties, which range from hefty fines to the imprisonment of journalists.

The Bahrain Press Association, after reviewing this draft bill, considered it the foundation of a total elimination of freedom of expression, and press freedoms. The Association believes that the passage of this bill is a full-fledged crime, especially that many of the articles impose a flagrant restriction on the freedom of the press. It also places the media under the fire of the government, and leaves journalists unprotected, vulnerable to tough penalties under both the penalty code and the Anti-terrorism Law.

Adding more repression through its security apparatus, the state amended the Anti-terrorism Law to expand its scope of targeting dissidents. Paradoxically, the Council of Representatives whose role is safeguarding freedoms, has been competing with the penal authorities in turning against Tweeters and journalists and issuing statements demanding their accountability.

Thus, the public sphere was completely locked down and handed over to the Ministry of Interior’s Cybercrime Unit. The Unit is devoted to reading tweeters and journalists’ whispers, interpreting their utterances and summoning them for interrogation or arresting them for trials.

It has been a brutal year during which Bahrain turned into a perilous police state. The construction of the wall of fear was completed, and the media sphere was left muted, leaving only one dominant voice—the voice of the state.

The expanding discontent was clearly evident in the dissident voices among social sectors affiliated with the sate itself. Indeed, muzzling and stifled freedoms reached unbearable levels. Pro-government writers and Tweeters have criticized the suffering freedom in the country.

Among the violations documented this past year were 21 trials against journalists and Tweeters, of whom only one has been acquitted. 16 interrogation cases, 9 arrests, and 22 threats and obstruction of work incidents were documented. Moreover, Bahrain Press Association has also documented 51 cases of interrogation and detention of religious singers during Ashura processions.

 

Recommendations:

Bahrain Press Association condemns the targeting of journalists, bloggers, and photographers, which the Association believes, has become a systematic, common practice. Such constraints have considerably affected Bahrain’s international reputation in terms of press freedom.

The Association calls upon the United States, the United Kingdom, the United Nations and all international organizations and bodies concerned with the defense of freedom of opinion and expression, press and media freedom to exert urgent pressure on the Bahraini government to:

– Immediately, and unconditionally, release of all photographers, reporters, journalists, and activists detained for conducting their work in covering protests or exercising their right of expression;

– Stop arbitrary prosecutions and arrests and judicial trials on charges of “insulting the king,” “spreading false statements” made against Internet activists and media professionals. Charges such as “protesting” for photographers, “inciting hatred of the regime” for politicians, and all charges pertaining to freedom of expression must be revoked;

– Secure the freedom of media and the press and to shut down the Office of Internet Surveillance in the Ministry of Transportation and Telecommunication, and to abolish Law No. (47) that regulates the press, publishing, and printing in the country;

– End the state’s monopoly of the television, radio and print media and enable the voice of opposition in the media, including reauthorizing the publication of Al-Wasat; and to

– Invite the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Promotion and Protection of the Right to Freedom of Opinion and Expression to schedule an urgent visit to Bahrain.

 

The Bahrain Press Association would like to express sincere gratitude to all those who contributed to the completion of this report, and to The National Endowment for Democracy (NED) in particular, for funding this report.