PEOPLE in Bahrain should be able to make their own choices under clear guidelines when it comes to accessing and running websites as a form of freedom of expression, experts said yesterday. Censor-ship of the Internet should be left to the discretion of each household and not at the governmental level, said leading blogger Mahmood Al Yousif.
He said exceptions to this would include websites that promote hate, crime or child pornography.
However, in other cases a judicial order should be sought before a website could be blocked and such action shouldn’t be at the discretion of the Public Prosecution, said Mr Al Yousif.
“Thousands of websites are blocked and this is degrading the reputation of Bahrain and many groups such as Freedom House and RSF (Reporters Sans Frontieres) have classified Bahrain as ‘not free’,” he told the GDN.
“We need clear guidelines as to what is acceptable and Bahrain’s government must adhere to the international and human rights conventions it had signed.
“They should leave it to each family to decide whether to block websites or not, it shouldn’t be up to the government.
“There are international standards to block websites that promote hate, crime and child pornography, but any other site should only be blocked if there is a proper legal order.”
Mr Al Yousif’s blog Mahmood’s Den, mahmood.tv, was one of several sites to be blocked by the then Information Ministry in October 2006.
At that time, it attracted over four million hits a month and at least 100,000 a day from all over the world.
The site was blocked in accordance with law 47 of 2002, dealing with publications and the Press.
The block on the website was lifted in November 2006 reportedly after the blogger agreed to certain conditions imposed by the ministry.
In 2008, Mr Al Yousif along with Al Waqt newspaper journalist Ahmed Al Aradi spearheaded The Electronic Publishers Code of Ethics Against Hate Speech.
The code, which was the first in the Gulf, outlines guidelines and principles that promote national unity and shuns entries that incite sectarianism and sedition.
Mr Al Yousif said the blocking of websites in Bahrain hadn’t necessarily prevented people from accessing them, but had affected the country’s image.
He said blocking websites was bad for the economy and didn’t line up with Bahrain’s “Business Friendly” slogan.
“Bahrain’s population has become adept at circumventing these blocks so the only purpose these blocks serve is to further harm the reputation of Bahrain,” said Mr Al Yousif.
“If we are Business Friendly Bahrain or aspire to be Business Friendly then we must act it and acting it is to remove the fettering of the Internet.”
He said the practice of blocking websites would deter entrepreneurs from establishing Internet companies because there was no certainty that their business wouldn’t be forced to close.
“He doesn’t know when the business will be shut down, so how will he have confidence to have an Internet-based company?” asked Mr Al Yousif.
He said that Bahrain was considering an electronic publishing law that would restrict the Internet and if approved it would do more harm than good because it was more likely to affect the average person rather than those it was targeting.
Mr Al Yousif said Bahrain already had all the laws it needed and an electronic publishing law wasn’t required.
Knowledge
“The only way to come to solutions is through dialogue and engagement, so blocking a Tweet or person on Twitter is never going to achieve integration,” said Mr Al Yousif.
“We don’t need more laws, we only need a liable law, which we already have.
“If we don’t draw the line on this then the future of Bahrain’s economy and business is non-existent, it won’t be business friendly.
“The whole economy in the world is going to be knowledge-based. We are in the midst of a knowledge revolution and it will stop Bahrain getting on the band wagon and being innovative and creative.”
Meanwhile, Dialogue participant and Bahrain Internet Society (BIS) chairman Ahmed Al Balooshi said there was a need for a separate law to regulate Internet content and social media because the media law couldn’t be applied.
He said in addition to the law BIS had called for the rules and responsibilities governing Internet content and social media to be outlined to the public and companies.
“Governance should be in place on content and social media to outline the process and procedures so they will give more details on the law,” said Mr Al Balooshi.
“There needs to be corporate governance, the structure of the operation needs to be known so that companies know how to implement it.”
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