Report of the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry

Report of the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry
1600. The Commission also received a number of reports alleging that
journalists were dismissed from national newspapers for attending and
reporting on the demonstrations of February/March 2011. Some of the
journalists alleged that they were dismissed even though they had been
assigned by their employer to attend and report on the events.
1601. One journalist at Al-Watan newspaper was investigated by the
newspaper’s human resources department and asked whether she had attended
protests at the GCC Roundabout. On 9 April 2011, her supervisors forced her
to resign. She was not given any reason for her dismissal. A former colleague
later informed her that she had been dismissed because a member of
parliament had complained to her editor about the content of news articles that
she had been posting on her personal Facebook page.
1602. A journalist who was reporting for the German News Agency and
European Press Photo Agency was arrested while taking photographs of a
protest on 11 March 2011. He was interrogated and released after one hour.
He was detained again on 22 May 2011 and taken to a police station for two
hours, during which time he was repeatedly beaten. He was also threatened
and harassed on Twitter and was described as an Iranian agent.
1603. A journalist reporting for France 24 and Monte Carlo Radio was
asked to appear at a police station for interrogation on 22 May 2011. This
journalist was accused of participating in protests and calling for the downfall
of the regime, charges which she denied. She claimed that interrogators
insulted and defamed her, and questioned her about journalistic reports she
had written for international media outlets. She alleged that she was
repeatedly kicked and beaten with a rubber hose by a number of police
officers. In addition, she alleged that she was electrocuted on her arm, had
urine poured on her face, had a shoe forced into her mouth and her head
plunged into a toilet to simulate drowning. At the end of the interrogation, she
was forced to sign a document that she was not permitted to read. The
journalist later filed a report of the incident with the MoI. On 24 May, she
was examined by physicians from Médecins Sans Frontières in Bahrain,
following which she travelled to Paris for medical treatment. 784
3. Allegations that the State-controlled media
was biased and incited hatred and violence
1604. Al Wefaq made a number of allegations against State-controlled and
pro-government media outlets concerning bias, incitement to violence against
opposition supporters and derogatory or inflammatory language. 785 Al Wefaq
alleged that State-controlled media outlets produced biased reports concerning
784 The complainant provided a report by Médecins Sans Frontières to the Commission during
an interview with a Commission investigator on 14 August 2011. In a section entitled
“Impressions” in that report, it states: “This examination is consistent with multiple blunt
trauma with both narrow (whip or stick) and with broad (fist or boot) objects within the last 48
hours.”
785 Meetings between Al Wefaq and the Commission on 21, 29 and 31 October 2011.
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