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Bahraini activists launch press association in exile

by Courtesy

Bahraini activists launch press association in exile
Mohamed Elmeshad – Sat, 15/10/2011 – ALMASRY ALYOUM

Freedom of press in Bahrain has long been a contentious issue highlighted by human rights organizations such as Amnesty International and the Arab Network for Human Rights Information.

Independent Bahraini journalists have formed the Bahraini Press Association (BPA), which “aims to defend Bahraini media workers” as well as highlight the plight journalists working from the island, according to the group’s founding statement from July 2011. Initially registered in London, BPA also operates regionally, with 80 members in total, out of Cairo and a number of other countries.

“Inaugurating the BPA when we did was a necessary response to the changing situation after 14 February (when the uprising in Bahrain uprising began), with the military intervention in mid-March, and the subsequent daily infringements on freedom of speech and violations against journalists,” said Hussain Yousif, BPA’s Middle East and Cairo coordinator. Yousif, who cannot return to Bahrain for fear of imprisonment, said that the BPA would not exist in Bahrain given the current conditions, which they consider hostile to journalists.

“What’s happening to Bahrain’s journalists is an extension to what journalists in Egypt and the rest of the Arab world went through. Syndicates and human rights activists have been very gracious in hosting us,” said BPA’s coordinator from London, Adel Marzouk.

BPA released a report on violations against journalists, both local and international, working in Bahrain since February. It estimates that around 120 journalists have been harassed one way or another for independent reporting.

“These journalists have either been arrested, laid off, fined or tortured due to their independent reporting,” said Marzouk.

Publisher Kareem Zahrawi and blogger Zakariya al-Ashira died in custody under “mysterious circumstances,” according to the report, titled “Word Leading to Death.” …more