Ex-editors in Bahrain reject charges of unethical coverage

Ex-editors in Bahrain reject charges of unethical coverage
June 20, 2011 01:29 AM
Associated Press

MANAMA, Bahrain: Lawyers for three former top editors of Bahrain’s main opposition newspaper Sunday challenged allegations of unethical coverage by their clients during mass anti-government protests in the kingdom.

The trial of the editors of Al-Wasat newspaper, who were forced to resign from Bahrain’s most widely-read newspaper after the government imposed emergency rule in March to quell dissent, is part of a crackdown on the island nation’s Shiite-led opposition.

The charges against the three former editors, who pleaded not guilty last month, include publishing false news and endangering public order. If convicted on all charges, they face at least two years in jail and hefty financial fines.

Two employees of Al-Wasat newspaper told Bahrain’s highest criminal court Sunday that the editors overlooked fabricated information because of the difficult conditions facing the kingdom’s only opposition paper during demonstrations against Bahrain’s Sunni rulers.

The two employees said the newspaper’s offices had been vandalized and its staff had been threatened, forcing the staff to work from home.

Al-Wasat’s founder and former chief editor, Mansoor al-Jamri, told the court during last week’s hearing that the paper published the fabricated items after it fell victim to a plot aimed at undermining Al-Wasat’s role as the main voice for pro-reform advocates. …more