AhlulBayt News Agency

source : AFP
Tuesday

3 May 2011

7:30:00 PM
239954

Bahrain king is press freedom predator

The media rights watchdog Reporters Without Borders has called Bahrain’s King Hamad bin Issa Al Khalifa a ‘predator’ in regard to press freedom.

(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) - The monarch shares the notoriety with nearly 40 other names on a list drawn up by the France-based NGO.

The individuals, states, and organizations on the list “sow terror among journalists,” according to RSF, the French acronym for Reporters Without Borders.

RSF cited the example of Karim Fakhrawi — a Bahraini journalist, who died in custody.

Yemen and Libya were also placed on the list as countries that terrorize journalists.

The list also includes warlords and armed entities like the Israeli armed forces.

Since the beginning of anti-regime protests in Bahrain in mid-February, the authorities have been brutally suppressing the opposition.

On March 14, troops from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates invaded the country to assist the Bahraini government’s crackdown on the peaceful protesters.

Bahraini security forces have repeatedly attacked medical centers across the country, arresting wounded anti-government protesters and medical staff.

Physicians for Human Rights says doctors and nurses have been detained, tortured, or disappeared because they have “evidence of atrocities committed by the authorities, security forces and riot police” in the crackdown on anti-government protesters.

The protesters are demanding an end to the rule of the Al Khalifa dynasty.

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