15 Aug 16 | Bahrain, Bahrain Letters, Campaigns, Campaigns -- Featured, mobile, Statements
Rt Hon Boris Johnson
Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs
Foreign and Commonwealth Office
King Charles Street Whitehall
London SW1A 2AH
15 August 2016
Dear Mr Johnson,
First, may we congratulate you on your recent appointment as Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs.
We write to raise our deep concern over the current ambassador from the Kingdom of Bahrain to the UK, Sheikh Fawaz bin Mohammad Al Khalifa, on his recent statements and record on press freedom, and urge you to raise the concerns set out below to the Government of Bahrain.
Last month, on 20 July, the Bahrain embassy in the UK released a statement in support of the actions of the Information Affairs Authority (IAA), which brought a case against Bahraini journalist Nazeeha Saeed. Ms. Saeed has worked as correspondent for France24 for seven years, and for Radio Monte Carlo Doualiya for 12 years. She was charged with working for international media outlets without a license. Her case is just the latest in a series of regressive actions targeting critical journalists, creating an environment where a free fourth estate cannot function.
The Bahrain embassy’s statement reported that the IAA had lodged a legal complaint against Ms. Saeed for illegally working as a foreign correspondent, that Ms. Saeed’s foreign correspondence license expired ‘over 150 days’ ago, and that she was warned of legal action.1 None of this is true. The undersigned NGOs have seen a letter by the IAA from June 2016 denying her license renewal, which she had applied for at the end of March 2016 (some 110 days earlier to the embassy’s statement, not 150). The IAA did not in fact warn her of legal action in the letter.
It is not innocuous that Sheikh Fawaz, as ambassador to the United Kingdom, had the embassy publish this statement in support of the IAA and we see this statement as a reflection of Bahrain’s antipathy towards a free press, and as Sheikh Fawaz’s direct role in antagonising the press.
The IAA is the government body that regulates the press, issues journalist licenses, and operates Bahrain News Agency and the state-run Bahrain TV. Sheikh Fawaz Al Khalifa, prior to becoming ambassador, was the first president of the IAA between 2010 and 2012, overseeing the institution during the Arab Spring. In that time, the government systematically cracked down on political and civil freedoms. The IAA was responsible for suspending the only independent newspaper, aiding in the censorship of the press and the deportation of foreign-national journalists, and in spreading hate speech through IAA-controlled TV stations.
Journalists interviewed by the Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy have told us that press relations were calmer before Sheikh Fawaz’s 2010-2012 presidency of the IAA. Sheikh Fawaz’s appointment as media chief in July 2010 coincided with the arrest and torture of opposition politicians and activists in the lead-up to Bahrain’s November 2010 General Elections, actions which precipitated the Arab Spring protests. Journalists state that government censorship of the press increased substantially with the formation of the IAA under Sheikh Fawaz.
In May 2011, Ms. Saeed was summoned to a police station in connection to the police killing of a protester she had witnessed. There, police detained her and tortured her into signing a confession, as reported by Human Rights Watch.2 To date Ms. Saeed has been denied justice by Bahrain’s courts.3 The IAA, despite its responsibilities to protect journalists, did not support her. Soon after Ms. Saeed’s detention, BBC Arabic interviewed Sheikh Fawaz, then-IAA president, asking him: “Why is a journalist who has come to report these events treated in this way?” He replied: “She does not have any license to report for the French news agency.”4 In fact, Ms. Saeed had a license at that time, and has done throughout her career, until the IAA’s refusal of her latest renewal in April 2016. Sheikh Fawaz not only failed to protect a vulnerable journalist, he intentionally spread falsehoods justifying her mistreatment.
Ms. Saeed’s case is not the only one in which Sheikh Fawaz has played a role. The Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry, the accepted record of rights violations during 2011, notes (para. 1611) how Sheikh Fawaz’s Deputy Assistant at the IAA summoned an Iraqi journalist working for the only independent newspaper, Al Wasat, for a meeting in April 2011 during an imposed State of Emergency. When the journalist arrived at the IAA offices, police arrested, beat and threatened him, then deported him that same evening.5
Al Wasat newspaper was subjected to a smear campaign led by the IAA itself. On 2 April 2011, the IAA-operated Bahrain TV broadcast a two-hour live show antagonising Al Wasat and immediately afterwards, the IAA suspended the newspaper, only allowing it to resume publication after the resignation of its senior editorial staff.6 The newspaper was not alone suffering this crackdown on free expression: Bahrain TV broadcast programmes identified and vilified celebrity protestors throughout the Arab Spring period. Athletes, including national football team players, who called on live broadcasts to defend their appearance at protests, were arrested and subjected to torture within days of doing so.7 The IAA-run Bahrain TV, which we reiterate would have been executing policy set by the president, Sheikh Fawaz, has never been held to account for its role inciting hatred against legitimate political protest and the targeting of specific persons.
Journalism as a whole was under threat during Sheikh Fawaz’s leadership of the IAA. The repression of independent journalists and media under his watch was on a scale similar to that seen in countries like Turkey and Egypt, which are known for state censorship of the press.
A sure indicator of this is in the Reporters Without Borders Press Freedom Index, which ranks each country on press freedom, with the 1st country having the freest press. Bahrain’s ranking, which stood at 119th in 2009, the year before Sheikh Fawaz’s IAA presidency, fell by 46 rungs to 165th by 2012, the year his presidency ended. This was the greatest fall in rankings Bahrain ever saw.
Bahrain’s ranking currently sits at 162 (with this latter rise in rank due mainly to the addition of countries ranked below Bahrain). As a point of comparison, the 2016 Press Freedom Index 2016 respectively ranked Turkey and Egypt at 151 and 159. The rankings reflect Sheikh Fawaz’s devastating leadership of the state media body and the long shadow left on press freedom.
It was for these reasons that the community of press freedom activists, rights defenders and NGOs greeted Sheikh Fawaz’s appointment as ambassador to the United Kingdom with alarm. His embassy’s latest statements on the case of Ms. Nazeeha Saeed, for which the history extends back to his IAA presidency in 2011, calls back his direct role in repressing Bahrain’s press and journalists. His role in allowing the incitement of hatred against pro-democracy protesters on his watch, and his continued public attempts to mislead on the cases of journalists like Ms. Saeed, are indications that neither he nor the country he represents share the key British values of the right to free speech and individual liberty, nor in the universally recognised right to freedom of expression, as protected under Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The Kingdom of Bahrain’s choice of a person with a key role in repressing freedom of speech as their ambassador to the United Kingdom reflects Bahrain’s unchanged, poor attitudes towards freedom of speech and human rights more generally.
We therefore urge you to address this promptly and raise these issues surrounding Sheikh Fawaz’s past and current involvement in the violations of press freedom with the Government of Bahrain.
Yours sincerely,
Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy
Index on Censorship
Reporters Without Boarders
1 Bahrain Embassy in London, Press Release: Information Affairs Authority Clarifies Regulation for Foreign Correspondents Related to Nazeeha Saeed, 20 July 2016, http://us12.campaign- archive1.com/?u=adae2d71fee280549ad890919&id=79fd8c6d53.
2 Human Rights Watch, Criminalizing Dissent, Entrenching Impunity: Persistent Failures of the Bahraini Justice System Since the BICI Report, 28 May 2014, https://www.hrw.org/report/2014/05/28/criminalizing-dissent- entrenching-impunity/persistent-failures-bahraini-justice.
3 Reporters Without Borders, RSF Demands Justice for Bahraini Journalists Tortured in 2011, 20 November 2015, https://rsf.org/en/news/rsf-demands-justice-bahraini-journalist-tortured-2011.
4 Bahrain TV on Youtube, IAA President Interview on BBC Arabic – 27 May 2011, 27 May 2011, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SDlClo2AIuE.
5 Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry (BICI), Report of the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry, November 2011, para. 1611, http://www.bici.org.bh/BICIreportEN.pdf.
6 BICI, Report of the BICI, para. 1592.
7 ESPN (mirror), ESPN E:60: Athletes of Bahrain, 8 November 2011, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wfhPWwhWlJU.
12 Aug 16 | Bahrain, Bahrain Statements, Campaigns, Campaigns -- Featured
We, the undersigned civil society groups located worldwide, write to you to once more condemn the ongoing harassment of human rights defenders in Bahrain and call on you to drop all charges against Sheikh Maytham Al-Salman.
Sheikh Maytham Al-Salman has been called for interrogation at Ministry of Interior on Sunday 14 August 2016 due to exercising his right in defending religious freedom and exposing human rights violations in Bahrain. This latest reprisal is part of a disturbing trend of crackdowns by the Bahraini government against human rights defenders and civil society organizations.
Sheikh Maytham is an internationally respected interfaith leader and human rights advocate. His work focuses on defending religious freedom and countering violent extremism while supporting the right to freedom of expression in accordance with international human rights standards. In October of 2015, Sheikh Maytham was honoured for his work with the Interfaith Communities for Justice and Peace “Advocate for Peace” award.
Bahraini authorities have harassed Sheikh Maytham on numerous occasions in the past, including two separate incidents in 2015 when he was detained for his human rights activities. He was also summoned in connection to the content of a speech he gave on 27 December, the anniversary of the arrest of prisoner of conscience Sheikh Ali Salman, in which he drew attention to the violations of international fair trial standards that took place.
This harassment is in violation of Article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), which Bahrain has been a signatory to since 2006. It also contradicts the obligations of the state to protect human rights defenders, as derived from their obligation to protect all human rights under Article 2 of the ICCPR.
Rather than ensure their protection, Bahrain has made a habit out of persecuting dissidents and activists. Sheikh Maytham joins other high-profile individuals like BCHR President Nabeel Rajab, activist Zainab al-Khawaja and human rights defender Naji Fateel that have been targeted for their work and denied their right to freedom of opinion and expression.
The undersigned call on the Government of Bahrain to allow the important work of Sheikh Maytham and others who bring human rights violations to light to be conducted unimpeded, as provided for under the ICCPR and other relevant international human rights standards by taking the following steps:
- Drop all charges pending against Sheikh Maytham al-Salman for exercising his right to freedom of speech;
- Release all prisoners who have been convicted for their political opinions; and
- Fully comply with the recommendations of the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry (BICI); particularly those that ensure the right to freedom of expression, opinion and assembly are respected.
01 Aug 16 | Bahrain, Middle East and North Africa, mobile, News and features
Bahraini human rights defender Nabeel Rajab (Photo: The Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy)
Nabeel Rajab, the Bahraini human rights activist and Index on Censorship award winner, was due to stand trial on 2 August – now postponed until 5 September – over comments he made on Twitter criticising government institutions. In Bahrain, such comments can land you in jail, as Rajab has seen before, having spent two years behind bars for tweets made in 2012.
Index looks at how Rajab has been treated by the Bahraini authorities over the years.
1994-1996
Rajab became involved in the uprisings in Bahrain of the 1990s to demand democratic reforms within the country.
2000
Rajab co-founded the Bahrain Human Rights Society to strengthen calls for democratic reforms.
2002
Rajab worked with Abdulhadi al-Khawaja and others to found the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights, an NGO to promote human rights in Bahrain.
2005
Rajab suffered a spinal injury, fractured arm, broken finger and head injury after being attacked by Bahraini’s Special Security Force Command while attending a peaceful rally by the Committee for the Unemployed to protest against the government’s management of unemployment levels.
2010
During a government crackdown on dissent in the summer of 2010, Rajab’s photograph was published a number of times in the pro-government publication Al-Watan, accusing him of supporting terrorists and publishing false information. Other publications followed suit.
On 8 September, a warrant for his arrest was issued and he was subject to a travel ban. Just over a week later, these were dropped.
2011
During the 2011 Arab Spring, Bahrain’s monarchy faced serious threats. As a result, even peaceful demonstrators were met with brutal government repression, leaving over 30 dead. Rajab had been a leading voice during the Bahraini uprising, and many associated with him faced a backlash. Even members of CNN’s news team were arrested by the government’s security forces as they visited his house in April. “Twenty men in black ski masks are reported to have surrounded the news team and confiscated their recording equipment,” Index reported at the time.
In June, Rajab was summoned to a military court just hours before Bahrain was due to lift its emergency law, which saw the arrival of Saudi troops in Bahrain to help crush the peaceful protests. Rajab then went missing for several of days.
2012
On 6 January 2012, Rajab was hospitalised being beaten by security forces after leading a protest in Manama and briefly detained. On 12 February he was briefly detained after he tried to march to the location of the Pearl Roundabout in Manama, where government forces cracked down on protesters during the 2011 uprising.
Nabeel Rajab, BCHR – winner of Bindmans Award for Advocacy at the Index Freedom of Expression Awards 2012
In March, the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights won Index on Censorship’s Freedom of Expression Award for advocacy, which recognises campaigners who fight repression.
In April, Bahrain hosted the annual Formula One Grand Prix. Following the negative media coverage around the event, Bahraini authorities stepped up their suppression of the country’s protest movement. During this time, Rajab was arrested and released several times.
On 5 May, Rajab was arrested at Bahrain International Airport on his arrival from Lebanon the day before the scheduled court hearing relating to a protest he had attended in March. The following day, he was charged with “insulting a statutory body of Twitter”. He was released on 28 May but re-arrested on 7 June, and in July was sentenced to three months in prison for allegedly defamatory tweets.
On 16 August he was sentenced to three years in prison for charges related to “illegal gathering”. Between 2012 and 2014, Rajab spent two years behind bars.
2014
In October 2014, a court ruled that Rajab would face criminal charges stemming from a single tweet in which both the ministry of interior and the ministry of defence allege that he “denigrated government institutions”. Rajab faced up to six years in prison.
He was due to stand trial on 19 October. It was adjourned until 29 November and he was denied bail. In November it was adjourned again until 20 January 2015 and Rajab was freed without bail.
2015
When Rajab finally stood trial on 20 January, he was sentenced to six months in prison, which was suspended pending a fine. He was granted bail while he appealed the verdict. It wasn’t long before he was summoned by police again, and fresh fears emerged of his arrest. On 26 February, he wrote an email to supporters which read: “Just to inform you that I was summoned today morning to attend the police station at the same time – and I came to know that the new charge against me will incitement of hatred against the regime.” In early April he was arrested, again for comments made online.
While his appeal date was set for 15 March, it was repeatedly postponed.
On 14 July, the Bahraini king pardoned Rajab three months into a six-month sentence for the tweet. According to Bahrain’s official news agency, this was over fears for his health.
2016
Back in January, Rajab was given an arbitrary travel ban. Index, along with other NGOs, called for this ban to be lifted so that he could travel abroad with his family to secure medical assistance for his wife, Sumaya Rajab.
On 13 June, he was taken from his home early in the morning and his electronic devices were seized. The next day, he was charged with “spreading false news” and has been in detention since, awaiting trial. After 15 days in solitary confinement, Rajab was hospitalised in late June.
On 7 July, the European Parliament adopted a resolution condemning recent human rights abuses in Bahrain and called for an end to the ongoing repression against the country’s human rights defenders, political opposition and civil society.
A few days later, a coalition of international NGOs, including Index on Censorship, condemned Bahrain’s treatment of Rajab.
His trial was due to take place on 2 August but has been postponed until 5 September. A tweet by Index, which Rajab shared, is to be used as evidence against him. It reads:
28 Jul 16 | Bahrain, Bahrain Statements, Campaigns, Campaigns -- Featured, Statements
Nazeeha Saeed has been arbitrarily curtailed by Bahrain’s Information Affairs Authority.
We, the undersigned, express our deep concern with the Bahraini Public Prosecution’s decision to charge Nazeeha Saeed, correspondent for Radio Monte Carlo Doualiya and France24, with unlawfully working for international media. We consider this an undue reprisal against her as a journalist and call on Bahrain’s authorities to respect fully the right of journalists to practice their profession freely.
Nazeeha Saeed is an award-winning journalist and correspondent for Radio Monte Carlo Doualiya and France24. She has previously reported on the protest movement in 2011, and has reported on the mounting dissent against the Bahraini government for the last several years.
On Sunday 17 July 2016, the Public Prosecution summoned Nazeeha Saeed for interrogation based on a legal complaint from the Information Affairs Authority (IAA). The prosecution charged her under article 88 of Law 47/2002, which regulates the press, printing and publication. Article 88 states that no Bahraini can work for foreign media outlets without first obtaining a license from the Information Affairs Authority (IAA), which must be renewed annually.
Prior to the expiration of her license, Nazeeha Saeed applied for a new one at the end of March 2016, at which point, the IAA refused a renewal. This is the first time she has received such a rejection. Following this, Saeed continued to work as a correspondent for France24 and Radio Monte Carlo Doualiya. She now faces trial in the civil courts and a fine of up to 1000 Bahraini Dinars (USD $2650) if found guilty.
This is not the first time Nazeeha Saeed has been subjected to harassment by the Bahraini authorities. In May 2011, during a state of emergency imposed in response to Arab Spring protests, police summoned Saeed to the station and detained her there. For her coverage of events in Bahrain – Nazeeha Saeed witnessed police killing a man at a protest and rejected the government narrative of events – police allegedly subjected her to hours of torture, ill-treatment and humiliation, which only ended when she signed a document placed before her. She was not allowed to read it. Despite complaining to the Ministry of Interior and the new Special Investigations Unit, the body under the Public Prosecution charged with investigating claims of torture and abuse, in November 2015 the authorities decided against prosecuting the responsible officers on the basis of there being insufficient evidence.
In June 2016, Bahrain’s authorities placed Nazeeha Saeed on a travel ban, preventing her from leaving the country. The ban was applied without informing Saeed, who only discovered it after she was refused boarding on her flight. The police officer at the airport was unable to explain the reason for this travel ban, and officials from the immigration department, the public prosecution and the Criminal Investigation Department (CID), told the journalist that they were not even aware of its existence. Saeed is one of approximately twenty individuals known to have been banned from travel in Bahrain since the beginning of June 2016. Other journalists working for international media face similar threats and have also reported facing increased pressure from the government in the last year, making their work difficult. RSF and the Committee to Protect Journalists both list Bahrain as one of the leading jailers of journalists in the world. One of them, Sayed Ahmed Al-Mousawi, was stripped of his citizenship by a court in November 2015.
As organisations concerned with the right to freedom of expression, we call on the Government of Bahrain to end the reprisals against Nazeeha Saeed, lift her travel ban and drop the charges against her. We also call on the authorities to stop arbitrarily withholding license renewals and to allow journalists to report with full freedom of expression as protected under Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and Article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
Signed,
Adil Soz, International Foundation for Protection of Freedom of Speech
ACAT
Albanian Media Institute
Americans for Democracy and Human Rights in Bahrain
ARTICLE 19
Bahrain Center for Human Rights
Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy
Bahrain Press Association
Bytes for All
Canadian Journalists for Free Expression
Cartoonists Rights Network International
Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility
Committee to Protect Journalists
Egyptian Organization for Human Rights
English PEN
European Centre for Democracy and Human Rights
Foro de Periodismo Argentino
Freedom Forum
Freedom House
Free Media Movement
Front Line Defenders
Gulf Centre for Human Rights
Hisham Al Miraat, Founder, Moroccan Digital Rights Association
Human Rights Network for Journalists – Uganda
Independent Journalism Center – Moldova
Index on Censorship
Institute for the Studies on Free Flow of Information
Instituto de Prensa y Libertad de Expresión – IPLEX
International Press Institute
Justice Human Rights Organization
Maharat Foundation
Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance
Media Watch
Norwegian PEN
Pacific Islands News Association
Pakistan Press Foundation
Palestinian Center for Development and Media Freedoms – MADA
PEN American Center
PEN Canada
PEN International
Reporters Without Borders
Social Media Exchange – SMEX
Vigilance pour la Démocratie et l’État Civique
