BAHRAIN MEDIA ROUNDUP

16th October 2014

Bahrain activist
detained for
'insulting' the king
A Bahraini activist who is
eight months pregnant was
detained for "insulting" the
king after she tore up his
photograph in court, a
human rights organization
said Thursday.
Human Rights Watch said
Zainab al-Khawaja
appeared before a Bahraini
court to face charges
related to two previous
incidents in which she had
torn up photographs of the
king. Once in the courtroom
on Wednesday, she pulled
out and ripped up another
photograph of the monarch.
The rights group said that
during her court
appearance, al-Khawaja
"took a photo of King
Hamad, ripped it up, and
placed it in front of the
judge, who immediately
adjourned the hearing.
Authorities arrested her
immediately and she spent
the night in Isa Town
detention center."
Read More
UK, US should hold
Bahrain accountable
to human rights
standards'
The UK and the US should
force Bahrain to respect
human rights despite the
Gulf Kingdoms geopolitical
and economic importance
for the two and their
security agreements,
prominent Bahraini activist,
Maryam Al-Khawaja told
RTs In the Now program.
Zainab Al-Khawaja was
arrested on Tuesday at a
court hearing over an
incident her sister, Bahraini
human right activist
Maryam explained. Zainab
is about to give birth and is
facing a jail sentence for
tearing up a photo of the
king.
RT: So tell me what
happened?
Maryam Al-Khawaja: Of
course what happened was
Zainab had two hearings
yesterday and she was
supposed to have another
hearing today.
Read More
BAHRAINS
RENEWED
CAMPAIGN AGAINST
HUMAN RIGHTS
DEFENDERS
On Oct. 1, 2014, 12-year-
old Malak Rajab excitedly
welcomed her father
Nabeel home following a
three-month trip to Europe,
where he had advocated for
human rights and
democratic reform for his
home country of Bahrain.
Only a few hours after his
return, however, Nabeel
Rajab found himself in a
Bahraini prison cell,
arrested once again for his
work as a human rights
defender.
Nabeel Rajab has been
ghting injustice in the Gulf
since the early 1990s. As
President of the Bahrain
Center for Human Rights
and Co-Director of the Gulf
Center for Human Rights,
he is one of the most
prominent critics of the
Bahraini government. He
was arrested by authorities
less than 24 hours after
returning from the 27th
Session of the United
Nations Human Rights
Council. At this gathering,
Rajab called on the
Bahraini government to
enact reforms, and urged
the international community
to take a stronger stance on
the Gulf kingdoms human
rights abuses.
Read More
A tweet to jail:
Bahrain in 2014
Prof Eoin OBrien on the
recent arrest of Nabeel
Rajab on his return to
Bahrain.
We live in a democracy that
permits freedom of speech.
In Ireland, we use social
networking to converse and
exchange views. In fact,
there are 600,000 daily
users of Twitter in Ireland,
and we send, on average,
one million tweets each day,
making us the 10th highest
number of Twitter users per
capita in the world.
However sceptical some
may be of this relatively
new way of communicating,
we, in Ireland send tweets
without fear of reprimand
and certainly without the
threat of jail. Such is not the
case in Bahrain where my
friend Nabeel Rajab has
been arrested for doing just
that.
Let me tell you something
about Nabeel and why his
fate is relevant to doctors in
Ireland, but rst a little
background.
Read More
GCC must 'regulate'
social media to
'reduce political
pressure': minister -
A Bahraini minister has
called for Gulf States to
regulate social media that
has been used to politicise
rights issues and put them
under pressure to institute
political changes.
Bahrains Minister of State
for Media Affairs Sameera
Bin Rajab called for the
formulation of a strategy to
reduce political pressure on
member states at the
meeting of information
ministers at a Gulf
Cooperation Council (GCC)
meeting in Kuwait on
Wednesday.
It is important to take
advantage of the
international efforts that
seek to regulate the
electronic media in order to
reduce the pressure
exerted on the countries in
the region under the pretext
of freedom of opinion and
expression, and which is
being misused to blackmail
and impose specic views,
she said.
Read More
FinFisher spyware
used to snoop on
Bahraini activists,
police told
Allegations that three
Bahraini activists resident in
Britain were spied on by
Bahraini authorities using
British spyware have led to
a criminal complaint.
Privacy International is
calling on the National
Cyber Crime Unit of
Britain's National Crime
Agency to investigate the
unlawful surveillance of
three human rights
campaigners allegedly
carried out using FinFisher
spyware software supplied
by British company Gamma
International.
Moosa Abd-Ali Ali, Jaafar Al
Hasabi and Saeed Al-
Shehabi, three pro-
democracy Bahraini
activists, were subjected to
years of harassment and
imprisonment prior to being
granted asylum in the UK.
All three were subsequently
targeted for online
surveillance after their
computers were allegedly
infected with FinFisher,
according to an
investigation by human
rights group Bahrain Watch.
Read More
Bahrain: Free Activist
Charged with
Insulting King
A Bahraini rights activist
jailed for ripping up a photo
of King Hamad bin Isa Al
Khalifa in court on October
14, 2014, should be
released
immediately.Bahrain should
drop all freedom-of-
expression related charges
against the activist, Zainab
al-Khawaja, who is eight
months pregnant and has
been charged with insulting
the king. Al-Khawaja was in
court to face charges
relating to two previous
incidents in which she also
tore up photographs of the
king as a form of protest.
She was arrested again in
the courtroom and, on
October 15, the public
prosecutor charged her with
insulting the king and
ordered her detention for
another seven days.
Read More