Doha • The Bahrain government is bent on muzzling the media, yet till date, its efforts have only been moderately successful.
Blogging enthusiast Mahmood N Al Yousif has run afoul of the country’s media laws for criticising the country’s agriculture minister. The minister’s department is also responsible for civic work, including draining water off streets after heavy rains. In December, the country was literally flooded and Mahmood blogged the minister was responsible for not ensuring the water was off the streets.
He was soon summoned by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) who referred the matter to the public prosecution and he was slapped with a defamation case. He is currently out on BD500 bail. “I criticised someone from the government who is a moron. The Bahrain Journalists Association (BJA) got involved and a deal was struck where I would have to change a few offensive words. But when they asked me to change comments made by others, I refused,” he said.
Yousif was speaking at a seminar held at the Doha Sheraton and organised by the Rand Coporation “Bahrain’s press freedom index rank is even worse than Qatar,” he said.
He further said thanks to the Internet and Google Earth, people now realise what is there in a huge part of land that is off-limits to Bahraini nationals and residents alike. Although it is officially called a military base, Bahrainis have found through using Google Earth that the entire area is covered by lush gardens and huge palaces belonging to the royal family. “Called Muhammadiya, the place has been appropriated by the rich with the Coast Guard providing protection against outsiders,” he said.
Yousif had the attendees in splits with his sense of humor and clever wordplay. However, it should be noted that in spite of the lighter vein in which he spoke, the entire presentation was related to serious issues.
“Bahrain has strong influences from Iraq, Saudi Arabia and Iran. Nowadays people don’t ask if one is Bahraini, but whether Shia or Sunni,” he said. Yousif talked about ‘Bandargate’ which involved a British national, Dr Saleh Al Bandar, who was brought in by the government to help plan policies for the long term. But what Saleh found out stunned Yousif as well as others.
“He discovered that the government is sowing sectarian division. It is trying to do whatever they can to marginalise one sect (the Shias). I personally feel that religion has nothing to do with anyone but yourself,†stated Yousif.
‘Bandargate’ caused the government to clamp down hard on the media with instructions given that the issue should not be mentioned. However, Yousif continued to blog about the issue, stating that the government had mentioned certain aspects that should be avoided and not the entire matter.
“The Ministry of Information, I prefer to call it the Ministry of Misinformation, tried to force all websites in Bahrain to register with them. But three days later, they made registering optional,” he said.
“The modus operandi is to muzzle journalists. The region’s media ownership should be freed up, and then creativity will explode,” said Yousif.