8 Jun 2017 | Bahrain, Bahrain Letters, Campaigns, Statements
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Bahrain suspended independent newspaper Al Wasat.
Index on Censorship, other international press freedom organisations and local Bahraini groups are among fifteen campaigners who today raised alarm over the suspension of Bahrain‘s only independent newspaper, Al Wasat, which has been barred from publishing for four days now. The nine rights groups which today wrote letters addressed to ten countries including the UK, state Bahrain is “effectively silencing the media in Bahrain and violating the right to freedom of expression.”
We are writing to urge your government to call on Bahrain to end the arbitrary suspension of Al Wasat newspaper. The Ministry of Information Affairs suspended Al Wasat, the only independent newspaper in Bahrain, on 4 June 2017, effectively silencing the media in Bahrain and violating the right to freedom of expression. The newspaper’s suspension comes after an escalation of reprisals against civil society, and the killing of five protesters by Bahraini police in May.
Al Wasat’s suspension is the latest in a recent spate of reprisals against independent media and civil society actors, including journalists, writers, and human rights defenders. In this context, journalists in Bahrain have expressed to NGOs serious concerns that the newspaper will not be allowed to resume publication.
The suspension comes days after the decision to dissolve Wa’ad, the last major opposition party on 31 May and the raid on Duraz village on 23 May, when 5 protesters were killed by Bahraini police and 286 arrested in the deadliest policing incident in King Hamad’s reign. Human rights defenders have also been subjected to harassment, torture and sexual abuse in the past weeks, according to Amnesty International.
The Bahrain News Agency reported “The Ministry of Information Affairs suspended Al Wasat newspaper until further notice following its recurrent violation of the law and spreading what would stir divisions within the community and undermine the Kingdom of Bahrain’s relations with other countries.” This accusation relates to an editorial about ongoing protests in Al-Hoceima, Morocco. Prior to the suspension of Al Wasat, Bahrain was already counted among the 20 most restrictive countries for press globally, with Reporters Without Borders ranking Bahrain as 164 out of 180 countries in its World Press Freedom Index.
Bahrain’s print media consists of five major Arabic-language daily newspapers. Of these, four are strongly pro-government and are owned by figures associated with the government. Al Wasat is the exception. Established in 2002 during a period of reforms, Al Wasat takes a critical editorial line and is financially independent of the state. Its editor Mansoor Al-Jamri is winner of the CPJ International Press Freedom Award in 2011 and winner of the Peace Through Media Award 2012.
It is not the first time that Al Wasat has been suspended. In January 2017, the newspaper was barred for two days from publishing online, though the print version was allowed, following a front-page story on the executions of three individuals. All three individuals were torture victims who had been sentenced to death following unfair trials. The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights said it was “appalled” by the executions. In August 2015, the newspaper was shut down for two days, allegedly because they did not refer to Bahraini casualties in Yemen as “martyrs”. In April 2011, in the middle of the March-June 2011 State of Emergency, the government suspended Al Wasat for one day. Karim Al-Fakhrawi, a co-founder of Al Wasat, was arrested on 2 April 2011 and tortured to death in police custody.
The suspension of Al Wasat muzzles the media, unduly restricting the right to freedom of expression and opinion. As the only independent newspaper in Bahrain, its suspension removes a key voice for public discourse and denies the public the right to access information and diverse views. In the context of current, severe human rights violations occurring in Bahrain, calls for the resumption of the only independent newspaper and the respect for freedom of expression and opinion urgently need to be heard and acted on. We, the undersigned, urge your government to publicly call on the Government of Bahrain to allow Al Wasat to resume publication immediately.
Yours sincerely,
Americans for Democracy & Human Rights in Bahrain
ARTICLE 19
Bahrain Center for Human Rights
Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy
Committee to Protect Journalists
English PEN
European Centre for Democracy and Human Rights
French PEN Club
Gulf Center for Human Rights
Index on Censorship
Norwegian PEN
PEN International
Project on Middle East Democracy
Reporters Without Borders
Signing as an individual:
Dr. David Andrew Weinberg
Senior Fellow
Foundation for Defense of Democracies[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_basic_grid post_type=”post” max_items=”12″ style=”load-more” items_per_page=”4″ element_width=”6″ grid_id=”vc_gid:1496910031018-0b3e663a-8fff-7″ taxonomies=”716″][/vc_column][/vc_row]
7 Jun 2017 | Bahrain, Bahrain Statements, Campaigns, Campaigns -- Featured
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Rebecca Hickman is a research intern at the Bahrain Center for Human Rights.
I am a citizen of the United Kingdom, and until recently, with the exception of fleeting mentions in school geography classes, I had never heard of Bahrain. When discussing the Arab Spring during university classes professors spoke, for the most part, of Tunisia and Egypt, the fight of the Bahraini people was silenced, rushed over and mentioned as a brief afterthought — if at all.
Now, I talk about Bahrain on a daily basis, I read and write about the cases of people imprisoned for expressing anti-government opinions, tortured for fighting for human rights, and forcibly disappeared for daring to expose government brutality. I help to tell the story of the Bahraini people, to raise the voices of those imprisoned, their families, and the Bahraini people.
My government is a friend of Bahrain, representatives of my country frequently visit the Gulf state, most recently my Queen was pictured laughing with the Bahraini King at the Windsor Horse Show. A year ago I would not have had a second thought about this picture, I would have skipped over it in the newspaper, and scrolled past it on my social media. This time, I was disappointed, disappointed in my country for failing to address the human rights abuses in Bahrain. That is not my country, not the one that I belong to, nor the one my friends and family call home.
The pro-democracy movement has been met with brutal and violent repression by the Bahraini government. The people of Bahrain have continued to take to the street to protest against the government; campaigning for human rights and democracy. The government brutally repress dissent. Peaceful protesters have been killed, activists have been tortured, and opposition leaders have been arrested and detained. Yet the Bahraini people continue to fight, they continue to protest, they continue to support activists who are detained, and they continue to expose allegations of torture, and instances of impunity.
There are around four thousand people in prison for their involvement in the pro-democracy movement. On 15 January 2017 three of these individuals, alleged torture victims, were executed. Two more men are at risk of imminent execution.
The Bahraini government want to silence the voices of the Bahraini people, yet they continue to fight for freedom, they continue to press for reform in the face of severe government repression, and it is integral that the international community come together to support them in this fight. It is our responsibility to ensure that prisoners voices are heard, to ensure that the world is unable to ignore what is happening in Bahrain, and to remind the Al-Khalifa regime that their actions are not going unnoticed.
Prisoners ask their friends and family to tell the world about what is happening to them. #WeHearYou is a campaign to raise the voices of those being silenced by the regime. After being arrested prisoners are blindfolded. The blindfold often stays on for days, weeks or months. By depriving detainees of their sight the Bahraini security forces are ensuring individuals cannot recognise their torturers, or see the confessions placed in front of them to sign.
We are asking people to wear a blindfold to show solidarity with prisoners of conscience who continue to sacrifice their freedoms for ideals we sometimes take for granted. We need to continue using our voices to raise that of those imprisoned.
I am lucky, I have human rights. I can criticise my government, I can take to the streets and protest without fear of being shot by birdshot pellets, I am at no risk of being woken in the night by security forces breaking down my door, and I do not have to worry that my actions, my fight for human rights and democracy, will result in retaliation being levied against members of my family.
We need to continue working for democracy and human rights in Bahrain and let the Bahraini people know that #WeHearYou.
Rebecca Hickman tweets @beccifelicia.
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Take Action
In Bahrain, you are not allowed to call for freedom or democracy. If you do you will be punished by the monarchy who has been ruling the country for the last 230 years: The Al-Khalifa. The regime has killed and injured peaceful protesters, arrested thousands of people, tortured activists, and denied journalists entry to the country to silence any voice for freedom. When prodemocracy protesters, activists, bloggers and journalists get arrested, they get blindfolded. The blindfold stays on for days, weeks and sometimes months, so they cannot identify their torturers and interrogators, they would then be forced to sign confessions with blindfolds on and those confessions would be used against them in court where they are sentenced to years in prison.
Today around four thousand people are in prison in Bahrain for being involved in the pro-democracy movement. Three have been executed. The purpose is to silence them. ”Please tell the world” is what many political prisoners ask their friends and family to do after describing the conditions inside Bahrain’s infamous prisons.
Let prisoners know we hear them. Let dictators in Bahrain know that people around the world care about freedom and human rights. Wear a blindfold to show your solidarity with prisoners of conscience. Use your voice to give voice to those behind bars by saying: #WeHearYou
Join the campaign:
1) Take a photo with a blindfold on
2) Share it on social media using hashtags #WeHearYou and #Bahrain
3) Follow us to know more and to help us spread the word
Twitter: @TogetherforBH Instagram: @TogetherforBahrain Facebook: @TogetherforBH
To be more involved contact us on [email protected][/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_basic_grid post_type=”post” max_items=”12″ style=”load-more” items_per_page=”4″ element_width=”6″ grid_id=”vc_gid:1496837400908-4bd2c57b-b33a-3″ taxonomies=”716″][/vc_column][/vc_row]
7 Jun 2017 | Artistic Freedom, News and features
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_video link=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RyaGg3Me38k&feature=youtu.be”][vc_column_text]Additional reporting by Mary Meisenzahl
Following similar events in the USA and Australia, the Orwell Foundation sponsored the first start-to-finish live reading of George Orwell’s 1984 in the UK on 6 June.
The Orwell Foundation hosted the 12-hour event at the University College London’s Senate House, the inspiration for the book’s The Ministry of Truth. The reading was also live-streamed to libraries and theatres across the UK. The foundation celebrates Orwell’s writing and reporting.
Tuesday’s event included 68 individuals who read from 1984 throughout the day. The readers were invited based on their embodiment of an aspect of Orwell’s values such as giving a voice to the powerless, making difficult freedom of speech decisions, having their writing banned and/or oftentimes taking a witty or controversial stance. These individuals were journalists, academics, public figures, artists members of the public and members of Orwell’s family.
While the participants read from 1984, actors performed parts of the book. Audience members described the experience as “topical,” “immersive” and “unforgettable”.
Director of the Orwell Foundation, Jean Seaton explained: “In the era of ‘post-truth politics’ and when every personal gesture is subject to commercial surveillance and commodified as data, the book has new resonance.”
Click here to watch the full 1984 reading.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_basic_grid post_type=”post” max_items=”12″ style=”load-more” items_per_page=”4″ element_width=”6″ grid_id=”vc_gid:1496835496497-78ff0269-5a00-9″ taxonomies=”4479″][/vc_column][/vc_row]
7 Jun 2017 | Azerbaijan, Azerbaijan Letters, Campaigns, Campaigns -- Featured, Georgia, Statements
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Afgan Mukhtarli. Credit: Meydan TV
Index on Censorship and 22 other NGOs have written to Georgian Prime Minister Giorgi Kvirikashvili calling on his government to respect its international obligations and, in particular, to conduct a full investigation into Azerbaijani journalist Afgan Mukhtarli’s abduction in Tbilisi on 29 May.
Att.: Prime Minister of Georgia, Mr. Giorgi Krvirikashvili
Parliament of Georgia
26, Abashidze Street
Kutaisi, Georgia, 4600
6 June 2017
Dear Mr. Krvirikashvili,
We write to express our deepest concern about the abduction of Afgan Mukhtarli, an exiled Azerbaijani journalist, on 29 May in Tbilisi. He went missing after leaving his colleagues in the evening, before resurfacing the following day in Baku in the custody of Azerbaijan’s state border agency.
Mukhtarli reports that he was forced into a car near his home, tied up and beaten. His abductors put a bag over his head and 10,000 euros were stuffed into his pockets while crossing the Azerbaijani border. His lawyer Elchin Sadygov, who managed to visit him in detention, confirmed that he bore the marks of blows to his face and that he may have had one of his ribs broken. On 31 May, a court in Baku sentenced him to a three months’ pre-trial detention while he is now being charged with smuggling, illegal border crossing and violence against police authority.
This disturbing development does not only expose Afgan Mukhtarli to the possibility of torture and a long prison sentence, but also sets a worrying precedent, threatening the security of dozens of other Azerbaijanis living in exile in Georgia. Numerous independent journalists, human rights defenders and other civil society activists fled Azerbaijan in recent years to escape repression, but they are increasingly becoming targets of harassment and persecutions abroad. They were hoping to find a safe haven in Georgia, but must now live with the constant fear of being illegally brought back to their country of origin.
Afgan Mukhtarli’s abduction and illegal deportation to his country while in process of applying for asylum in Georgia is a clear violation of international law. The prohibition of torture, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment enshrined in Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights, to which Georgia is a state party, clearly implies an obligation for each country not to expel, extradite or deport an individual to a state, where he or she faces a real risk of being subjected to this type of treatment. It is therefore Georgia’s responsibility to guarantee the safety of Azerbaijanis living in its territory and to prevent any forced return to their country.
Afgan Mukhtarli’s abduction is a black stain on Georgia’s reputation as a leader in upholding human rights standards in the Caucasus region. The Azerbaijani authorities are engaged in a relentless war against their remaining critics. The Council of Europe’s Commissioner for Human Rights, Nils Muiznieks, stated in May 2017: “The situation in Azerbaijan continues to worry me. Since 2015, I have intervened before the European Court of Human Rights in seven cases, which are in my view emblematic of the human rights problems of the country: limitations to freedom of expression, shrinking space for NGOs, and official harassment of human rights defenders and their lawyers. While the applicants of the cases I intervened in are no longer in prison, we should not forget all the others who are still detained on charges which defy credibility, often after having expressed critical views against the authorities.” As the neighbour of such a repressive state, Georgia has a moral duty to maintain its historical role of welcoming Azerbaijani dissidents.
We welcome the opening of an investigation into Afgan Mukhtarli’s “illegal abduction”. We hope that it will fully shed light on the abductors’ identities and clarify the potential role of the Georgian authorities in what happened. A clear message needs to be sent regarding that illegal actions of a neighbouring state on Georgian territory will not be accepted, and that any public servant implicated in such grave violations of international law will be held accountable.
Georgia has co-sponsored all recent United Nations resolutions on human rights defenders. Most recently, Georgia was amongst the States expressing grave concern at the United Nations Human Rights Council – of which Georgia is a member – “that the practice of enforced disappearance is often used to repress and intimidate human rights defenders” (resolution 34/5 adopted on 23 March 2017 by the Human Rights Council, with Georgia voting in favour). The credibility of Georgia’s commitment to the protection of fundamental rights and freedoms is hence at stake.
We thank you in advance for the attention you give to our request.
Sincerely,
- Canadian Journalists for Free Expression
- CEE Bankwatch Network
- Civil Rights Defenders
- Committee to Protect Journalists
- Crude Accountability
- English PEN
- FIDH, within the framework of the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders
- Freedom Now
- Human Rights First
- Human Rights House Foundation
- Human Rights Watch
- Index on Censorship
- IFEX
- International Media Support
- International Partnership for Human Rights
- Institute for War and Peace Reporting
- Netherlands Helsinki Committee
- Norwegian Helsinki Committee
- PEN America
- PEN International
- People in Need
- Reporters Without Borders (RSF)
- World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT), within the framework of the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders
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