Al-Wasat Archives - Committee to Protect Journalists

The Qatar Airways office in Doha. Gulf countries imposed a ban on Qatari flights and many have announced penalties for those reporting critically on recent tensions with the country. (AFP/STR)

Amid Gulf tensions, press is used as a political pawn

June 8, 2017 5:38 PM EDT

Today Bahrain became the latest Gulf nation to put pressure on news outlets amid political tension, when its Interior Ministry announced that anyone publishing support or sympathy for Qatar faces up to five years in prison. The announcement came the day after the United Arab Emirates used the threat of prison to demarcate how journalists…

Copies of Al-Wasat pictured at a Bahrain news kiosk in 2011. Officials issued a publishing ban on the independent outlet. (AP/Hasan Jamali)

Bahrain orders independent outlet Al-Wasat to cease publication

June 5, 2017 5:19 PM EDT

New York, June 5, 2017–Bahraini authorities should revoke an order barring the independent news outlet Al-Wasat from publishing and stop harassing the newspaper and its journalists, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. The Ministry of Information Affairs yesterday ordered Al-Wasat to cease publishing in print and online indefinitely, the outlet’s editor-in-chief Mansoor al-Jamri, told…

Bahraini journalists harassed, banned from travel

May 1, 2017 2:54 PM EDT

New York, May 1, 2017–Bahraini prosecutors and security officials should cease harassing journalists and should lift travel bans imposed on two reporters in the past week, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. Prosecutors summoned three journalists for questioning in the week before the U.N. Human Rights Commission conducted its Universal Periodic Review of the…

A boy celebrates the sixth anniversary of the Libyan revolution in Benghazi on February 17, 2017. Libya is divided between two rival governments. (Reuters/Esam Omran Al-Fetori)

Libyan authorities in Tobruk knock radio station off the air

March 6, 2017 6:08 PM EST

New York, March 6, 2017–Libyan authorities in Tobruk should immediately allow privately-owned Al-Wasat radio to resume broadcasting and should allow all news media to operate freely, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

Protesters block a road in Bahrain on January 15 after authorities executed three men convicted of a deadly attack on police. (AP)

CPJ calls on Bahrain to allow Al-Wasat to publish freely

January 17, 2017 5:46 PM EST

New York, January 17, 2017–The government of Bahrain should rescind an order suspending the online edition of Al-Wasat, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. The Information Affairs Ministry ordered the independent outlet yesterday to suspend its online operation indefinitely for inciting division, jeopardizing national unity, and disrupting public peace, according to the official Bahrain…

Bahrain accuses journalist of supporting terrorism

January 6, 2016 6:41 PM EST

New York, January 6, 2016–Bahraini authorities should immediately release journalist Mahmoud al-Jaziri and drop all charges against him, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. The terrorism charges were announced amid escalating sectarian tensions in Bahrain and other Gulf countries.

Outlets banned in Bahrain and Syria over allegations of false news

August 7, 2015 3:39 PM EDT

New York, August 7, 2015–The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on authorities in Bahrain and the Kurdish-run territory of Syria to rescind two separate decisions this week to suspend the operations of three news outlets that fill a critical journalistic space in their respective areas. The three outlets have been accused of spreading false news…

A Bahraini anti-government protester carries a sign with the picture of a jailed photographer during a march in Karranah, Bahrain, on Friday. (AP/Hasan Jamali)

To bridge divide, Bahrain should expand media access

March 4, 2013 6:19 PM EST

The Bahraini press, like almost everything else in the island country, is sharply divided. If the government would take steps to strengthen press freedom instead of restricting access, then much of this divide could be bridged.

Attacks on the Press in 2011: Profiles in Freedom

February 21, 2012 11:35 PM EST

How does one negotiate the choice to stay and report potentially dangerous news, rather than take a less risky assignment, leave the profession, or flee the country? The recipients of the 2011 International Press Freedom Awards explain. By Kristin Jones

Abduljalil Alsingace, center, stands with his family after being released from prison in February. (AP)

Bahrain upholds lengthy prison terms for journalists

September 28, 2011 5:15 PM EDT

New York, September 28, 2011–The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns today’s decision by the appeals chamber of Bahrain’s Court of National Safety to uphold lengthy prison terms for 21 individuals, including two online journalists and a prominent human rights defender. In separate press freedom violations, authorities prevented a newspaper from covering Saturday’s parliamentary by-election, and an…