5th September 2012

BAHRAIN MEDIA ROUNDUP

Bahrain police clash with Shiite protesters
Bahraini police clashed overnight with Shiite demonstrators who took to the streets in protest at jail sentences against prominent opponents, witnesses and the opposition said on Wednesday. Security forces used tear gas and shotgun re to disperse masked protesters who burned tyres and rubbish bins at the entrances of Shiite villages west of Manama, and hurled petrol bombs and rocks at security forces, witnesses said. One protester was seriously wounded in Karrana after receiving a "direct shot in the middle of his body," the main Shiite opposition grouping AlWefaq said in a statement. "Doctors have expressed deep concern over the condition of the wounded man," it said. Read More sentence. Abdulhadi alKhawajah, who holds Danish and Bahraini citizenship, and 12 other men were sentenced Opposition, Human to 15-25 years in prison. Rights Groups Guilty verdicts against seven Condemn Bahraini other activists who were Sentences convicted of the same charges and are fugitives Human rights and Bahraini were also upheld. opposition groups are denouncing the U.S.-backed The men led protests by monarchy in Bahrain for Bahrains Shiite Muslims upholding the convictions of 20 seeking a greater political activists on allegations of voice in the Sunni-ruled Gulf plotting to overthrow the U.S.kingdom. They can challenge yesterdays verdicts at the Court of Cassation. Read More and upheld by an appeals court in the country. "The secretary-general urges the Bahraini authorities to allow all defendants to exercise their right to appeal and to ensure that due process is observed," said a statement issued here by Ban 's spokesperson. Read More backed regime. The activists were sentenced by a military court last year, eight of them to life behind bars. In a statement, a coalition of Bahraini opposition and Shiite groups said: "There is no state in Bahrain. It is a tyrannical authority, and an oppressive government that tries to look like a (political) system while hiding security apparatuses that terrorize the people to silence demands for democracy." Read More uphold the harsh sentences against Mr Abdulhadi Khawaja and nineteen other individuals," Ashton said in a statement. The court Tuesday retried 13 leading opposition gures, including seven facing life in prison, as well as seven others who remain at large. Among those sentenced was Khawaja who in June ended a 110-day hunger strike. Read More

Bahrain: Overthrow plotters fail to get jail sentences lifted

A court yesterday upheld jail sentences against 20 opposition gures convicted of plotting to overthrow Bahrain's Westernallied government, including eight prominent activists facing life in prison.

The decision is likely to deepen the 19-month crisis between Bahrain's Sunni rulers and Shia-led protesters demanding a greater political voice. Among the eight sentenced to life is rights activist Abdulhadi al-Khawaja, who staged a 110day hunger strike earlier this year. The other 12 received prison terms ranging from ve to 15 years, with seven of them convicted in their absence. Read More

Eu, Amnesty Criticize Bahraini Court Ruling Against Activists

Human-rights groups and ofcials including Catherine Ashton, Europes foreignpolicy chief, expressed disappointment at the sentences handed down against 20 men for espionage and planning to oust Bahrains government. Bahrains High Court of Appeal yesterday upheld verdicts against 20 activists and reduced anothers

EU 'disappointed' as Bahrain upholds activists' sentences

EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said Wednesday she was "disappointed and concerned" after a Bahrain court upheld convictions against a score of activists accused of trying to overthrow the monarchy. "I am disappointed and concerned at the decision of the Bahraini Court of Appeal to

UN chief concerned about harsh sentences on Bahraini political activists

UN Secretary-general Ban Ki- moon said here on Wednesday that he is concerned about the harsh sentences including life imprisonment given to political activists in Bahrain

Ban voices concern at harsh sentences upheld against Bahraini activists

United Nations SecretaryGeneral Ban Ki-moon is concerned at the harsh sentences, including life imprisonment, upheld by a Bahrain appeals court against 20 Bahraini political activists, according to his spokesperson.

He urges the Bahraini authorities to allow all defendants to exercise their right to appeal and to ensure that due process is observed, his spokesperson added in a statement. The Secretary-General reiterates his appeal to the Bahraini authorities to ensure the application of international human rights norms, including the right to a fair trial, freedom of expression and peaceful assembly. Read More and economic progress still face severe obstacles. On Monday, ofcial statistics showed the economy slowed sharply in thesecond quarter.Adjusted for ination, GDP fell 1.3 per cent between the rst and second quarters after growing 0.9 per cent during the last quarter of 2011. It wasthe rst quarterly decline since the prodemocracy demonstrations of February 2011 caused a 6.6 per cent slump in output. Read More security forces, but soldiered on and made "iRevolution: Online Warriors of the Arab Spring," which went on to win awards and acclaim after its sole airing on CNN. But CNN International, "the most-watched Englishspeaking news outlet in the Middle East," has never aired the doc. While cutting the doc, Lyon was pressured to include statements from the Bahraini government that she knew to be lies Read More

kept by the authorities against human rights defenders.

Bahrain: Life sentence upheld for Mr. AlKhawaja while judicial repression of defenders continues
The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, a joint programme of the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT), is gravely concerned at the conrmation of heavy prison terms against Mr. Abdulhadi Al-Khawaja, and more generally the repressive line

Two weeks after the 3-year prison sentence against prominent human rights defender Mr. Nabeel Rajab, President of the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights (BCHR), Director of the Gulf Center for Human Rights (GCHR) and FIDH Deputy Secretary General, Bahraini courts continue the judicial harassment of human rights defenders in reprisal for their role in the protest movement that erupted in 2011 in the country. Read More

Unresolved conflicts leave Bahrains economy struggling to recover

An air of normality has returned to Bahrains central business district and the government is keen to focus on positive matters.But violent protests continue and, as events this week have demonstrated, political reform

Producer Claims Bahrain Kept Her Documentary Off CNN

"I couldn't believe CNN was making me put what I knew to be government lies into my reporting," journalist Amber Lyon is quoted as saying in Glenn Greenwald's latest column forThe Guardianlooking into the

punches the news network may have pulled in a segment about Bahrain's crackdown on its opposition. Greenwald looks into the mystery of an unaired documentary entitled "iRevolution: Online Warriors of the Arab Spring" and specically a 13-minute unaired (but available online) segment on the beginnings of the Bahrain uprising put together by journalist Amber Lyon and her crew. Read More 1. False: CNN International did not air "its own documentary".

CNN suppresses its own award-winning doc on human rights abuses in Bahrain; has commercial ties to the regime
CNN sent its investigative correspondent Amber Lyon to produce an expensive documentary on the Arab Spring, including human rights abuses in Bahrain. Lyon and her crew were violently detained by Bahraini

CNN International's Response to the Guardian

Here is CNN International's response to Glenn Greenwald's story in the Guardian about Amber Lyon's documentary, iRevolution: Online Warriors of the Arab Spring.

The Truth: It was never intended to air on CNN International. It was an hourlong program about the impact of social media on the Arab Spring that was commissioned for CNN US, where it ran in June of 2011. The portion of it that concerned Bahrain lasted about 13 minutes. Read More

UK malware used against Bahraini activists

The UK rm Gamma Group has created malware that can turn a cell phone into a tracking device. A new report revealed that the Bahraini government used it to spy on dissidents, while the rm says the software was stolen. Husain Abdulla, a naturalized US citizen and director of Americans for Democracy

and Human Rights in Bahrain (ADHRB), received an e-mail in May from a Bahraini opposition leader with an attachment entitled "Existence of a new dialogue." Luckily for him, it wouldn't open on his BlackBerry. "I couldn't open the attachment, but took it to one of the people investigating malware," he told DW. "They said it if you open it, it's going to be able to spy on any kind of activity you do on your computer or laptop." Read More bullets and tear gas to disperse the protesters in the capital, Manama, the northeastern island of Sitra, the northern village of Tubli and the western village of Sadad, Press TV reported. The demonstrators also expressed solidarity with leading opposition gures and condemned the recent verdicts against them. Read More

Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry: Rule of Law in PostConflict Resolution

On February 14, 2011, Bahrain joined the Arab Spring when thousands of protesters lled the streets, demanding economic reforms from King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa and the government. Over the course of a month the scene worsened, as violence and police responses escalated.

As the protests continued, a sectarian element became apparent: while the government is headed by the Sunni al-Khalifa family, a majority of protesters were Shia. A contention of the opposition is that the ruling Sunni elite is responsible for politically and economically disenfranchising the kingdom's Shia majority. Some ofcials have described the government response as panicked, as many protesters were jailed and quickly convicted of crimes. Read More bullets and tear gas to disperse the peaceful protesters in the capital, Manama, the northeastern island of Sitra, the northern village of Tubli and the western village of Sadad. The demonstrators also expressed solidarity with leading opposition gures and condemned the recent verdicts against them. Read More

Bahrain court confirms jail for protest leaders

Saudi-backed Bahraini forces have attacked demonstrators protesting against the Al Khalifa regime across the Persian Gulf country. The regime forces on Wednesday used rubber

Al-Khalifa Police Fire Rubber Bullets at Bahrainis

Bahraini forces have attacked demonstrators protesting against the Al-Khalifa regime across the Persian Gulf country, Press TV reported. The regime forces on Wednesday used rubber

Bahraini police use rubber bullets, tear gas against protesters

Saudi-backed Bahraini forces have attacked demonstrators protesting against the Al Khalifa regime across the Persian Gulf country, Press TV reports. Read More

CNN bans own documentary critical of Bahraini regime

CNN international Englishlanguage television network has refused to broadcast a documentary which was produced by the US-based network itself but heavily criticized the Bahraini regimes repression against anti-regime protesters. Read More