Mahmood's Den

An apt quote from George Orwell which the press in this part of the world in particular need to mull and head. I know that they won’t, but it’s worth reminding them of their duty. Even if one of the thousands of journalists gets a pang on conscience after reading this, then that’s a good [...]

A well deserved award for Dr Mansoor Al-Jamri and his paper. Al-Wasat has proven itself the only independent newspaper in Bahrain if not the Gulf and beyond. While I have become more skeptical of late, I tend to give news articles much more credence than any of the other papers in Bahrain and its columns, [...]

Read these gems, but please hold your laughter! Why the BBC ‘has let down Bahrain’s people’ By Arthur Macdonald, GDN, Posted on » Wednesday, November 02, 2011 MANAMA: The British Broadcasting Corporation moved from being a globally respected news organisation to joining the ranks of the yellow press during the unrest in Bahrain. That is [...]

It’s with pleasure that I read that Al-Wasat‘s investors have decided to rescind their previous decision to close down the paper. The board of directors has now decided to continue publishing the paper under their new management. Regardless of my personal apprehensions on its current editorial direction, and my sadness for the forced resignation by [...]

Punishments come in various guises, but the worst of those are the collective and indiscriminate ones. I think we’re seeing that today levied against the most respected newspaper in Bahrain. Al-Wasat comes to our doors with just 20 pages, and virtually no advertisements whatsoever. If this carries on, not only tens of families will lose [...]

Get this: The GDN publisher Anwar Abdulrahman objects to Jackson Diehl article in the Washington Post published on 3 Jan 2011. Rich? Of course! I like how he almost always starts by a historical reference to probably demonstrate his intellectual superiority. This time, he invokes the ghost of Lord Northcliffe‘s rather insipid quote of “the [...]

In a GDN report entitled “Democracy Is Taking Root” this morning, it shows that Bahrain’s democracy has climbed fully eight ranks from 130 in 2008 to 122 this year according to an EIU report: BAHRAIN is more democratic now than it was two years ago, according to a report by a leading research and analysis [...]