User:QuixoticUnderDog/sandbox

Media Coverage of the uprising
Coverage of the upraising within Bahrain has been controversial and confusing, with numerous incidents where media outlets reported conflicting reports of deaths and violence both by government forces and anti-government protesters. Both national and international journalists have had difficulty gaining access to protests and allegations of bias have caused scandals in two leading Arabic new sources, Al Jazeera and Al Arabiya.

International Coverage
International correspondents from several major news outlets had difficulty gaining entry to Bahrain or, once there, having the freedom to pursue stories. The Information Affairs Authority (IAA) lists a number of media outlets that would be allowed access to Bahrain, including the BBC, Financial Times and news agencies such as Reuters and Associated Press. However, claiming that the western media published and broadcast false and biased reports, the government of Bahrain denied visa's to several international journalists. The Agence France-Presse (AFP), The New York Times,The Wall Street Journal,The Christian Science Monitor, and the UK's Channel 4, and Al Jazeera all applied for media visas but had their applications denied.

In addition to refusing to grant visas, Bahraini authorities had detained some journalists. On March 31th 2011, 4 CNN journalists were detained for not having proper documents. The journalists claimed they did posses the correct documents, however, they were not able to conduct the interviews they had scheduled because of their source's fear of being arrested. When the same journalists attempted to interview the president of the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights, Rajab, at his home, 6 military vehicles arrived and 20 masked men surrounded the CNN team and Rajab and deleted all of the photos. Another CNN reporter, Mohammed Jamjoom, was 			expelled from Bahrain on March 16th, the same day he arrived. He said he was asked to leave without any explanation and a government 			official escorted him to the airport. Reuters correspondent Frederik Richter, was expelled on May 10th for what that Bahraini government said was biased reporting. On at least two occasions the Bahraini government has commenced or announced legal action against news sources or reporters for articles targeting Bahrain and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. .

The Bahrain Freedom Movement posted on their website that, in the second week of February, many journalists were banned from entering the country to report on the deteriorating situation-especially as the regime increased its cracked down on the protesters.

Al Jazeera Controversy
The Qatar based Al Jazeera has been heralded as one of the few networks who gave comprehensive and unbiased coverage of the Tunisian and Egyptian revolutions. The network is widely credited with helping protests maintain the momentum which resulted in the overthrow of the entrenched regimes of Tunisia's Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali and Egypt's Hosni Mubarak. Al Jazeera was able to subvert government bans on its coverage by soliciting images from people on the ground, even providing them with a special address where they could send mobile phone images. When social unrest began in Yemen and Al Jazeera turned their focus East, Yemeni President, Ali Abdullah Saleh, accused the network of running an "operations room to burn the Arab nation." and revoked the Al Jazeera correspondents' licenses.

Despite extensive, and sometimes even non-stop coverage of the revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt, Al Jazeera's coverage of Bahrain was much less comprehensive.

"'Despite being banned in Egypt, Al Jazeera went to great lengths to provide non-stop live coverage of events. It did not do that in Bahrain,' said political analyst Ghanem Nuseibeh."

In February 2011, several key in Al Jazeera's Beirut office resigned in protest, citing the channels 'biased' coverage of the uprisings in Syria and Bahrain. This includes Bureau Managing Director Hassan Shaaban and corrospondent Ali Hashem. Hashem stated that the channel refused to show photos which might favor the Syrian government's position and would not air material that showed violence in Bahrain.

Ghassan Ben Jeddo, who had been the head of the Beirut Bureau before resigning almost a year ago, said that Al Jazeera was biased in covering the Arab Spring, especially in Syria and Bahrain.

"“I do believe that Al Jazeera and other channels were not balanced in dealing with the events,” he said. “For instance, with respect to the events in Syria and Bahrain, we started to invite guests from America who only criticize the regime in Syria and support the regime in Bahrain and persons who justify NATO intervention. This is unacceptable.”"California State University, Stanislaus politics professor As'ad AbuKhalil noted that Al Jazeera avoided inviting Bahraini or Omani or Saudi critics of the Bahrainian regime to speak on the air, alluding to the also scant coverage of protests in Oman and Saudi Arabia.

In April 2011, David Pollack at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, noted that, “Al jazeera Arabic did not report on the hardening of the Bahraini opposition on March 8, when the Coalition for a Bahraini Republic called for an end to the monarchy, nor did it cover protests held there on March 9, 10, and 13, the critical days leading to Saudi Arabia's decision to send troops into Bahrain.” In one extreme example Pollack noted that at one point Al Jazeera English had a picture of Saudi troops headed across the causeway connecting Saudi Arabia and Bahrain while Al Jazeera Arabic ran a completely different headline proclaiming "Bahrain's Government Rejects Foreign Intervention" — alluding to a rejection Iranian interference.

In 2010, a WikiLeaks document mentioned Al Jazeera several times. One such document revealed that the Qatari government referred to Al Jazeera as "a bargaining tool to repair relationships with other countries, particularly those soured by Al Jazeera's broadcasts, including the United States.” This was confirmed by another WikiLeaks document stating “Relations [between Qatar and Saudi Arabia] are generally improving after Qatar toned down criticism of the House of Saud on Al Jazeera.” Another WikiLeaks document indicated that Al Jazeera “has proved itself a useful tool for the station's political masters.”.

Al Jazeera’s leadership told Reuters in mid-April 2011 that it faced a “challenging terrain” in Bahrain and that “Editorial priorities are weighed on a number of factors at any given moment.”. Journalist Don Debar, who has Al Jazeera experience, confirmed that the station has been heavily guided by the Qatari government in its policies. Stating, “The head of the bureau in Beirut quit, many other people quit because of the biased coverage and outright hand of the government in dictating editorial policy over Libya, and now Syria".

Critics did note that Al Jazeera coverage of the crisis in Bahrain did increase in May and June of 2011 and conceded that the severe press restrictions in Bahrain made coverage extremely difficult.

Al Arabiya Controversy
The Saudi-owned channel Al Arabiya has also been conservative in its coverage. When Former Tunisian President Ben Ali sought refuge in Saudi Arabia after fleeing unrest in his own country, Al Arabiya referred to the revolution in Tunisia as "the change".

The popular talk show "Studio Cairo" was cancelled in February after its host, Hafez al-Mirazi said on the air he would host a discussion on Gulf political reform on his next show. al-Mirazi defended his actions, saying, "'there was no excuse for anyone at Al Jazeera and Al Arabiya to discuss Egypt while not being able to talk about the Emir of Qatar or Qatari politics or King Abdullah and Saudi politics.'"

Al Arabiya's coverage has been less conservative in covering the Arab revolutions in Libya and Syria. Both of which have poor relationships with Saudi Arabia.

Coverage within Bahrain
Consistent media coverage from within Bahrain has been problematic. There have been cases where reports have gone unconfirmed or have been contradictory. One of those instances was the death of an elderly taxi driver on March 13th 2011. The Gulf Daily News newspaper that the driver had been beaten to death by anti-government protesters. Other Bahraini news organizations reported the driver as having been killed by terrorists. Al-Wasat (Bahraini Newspaper), one of the country's independent newspapers, reported the cause of death as a simple traffic accident and was able to cite witnesses. The Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry, a Commission praised by Amnesty International, did not report any deaths like this as connected to the uprisings in any way.

Another instance was the supposed death of a Saudi Arabian soldier on March 15th, reported by the Associated Press. The information was said to have come from a Saudi Arabian official, but Bahrain news organizations denied the report and the Commission of Inquiry, again, found no proof of it having happened or having any connection with the uprising. Bahraini newspapers have given plenty of coverage to the protests, although many of them tend to self sensor themselves and not divert too much from the government point of view, while also avoiding criticism of the king and the Royal family.

Al-Wasat, a newspaper founded by an opposition figure on 2004 was an exception to this rule and a positive influence on other newspapers according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. For all the problems related to censorship in Bahrain, it is worth noting that the Government allowed Al-Wasat to keep operating, only suspending the newspaper for one day, on April 3rd 2011. However, this permission has come with heavy costs to the newspapers editors and journalists. After the suspension of April 3rd the editor in chief, among other editors, was forced to resign and Karim Fakhrami, one of the founders of Al-Wasat, was arrested on the same day and ended up dying while under custody on April 12. The public announcement said that his death was due to kidney failure, however, the Committee to Protect Journalists said that there were bruises on his body and the final report of the Bahraini Commission of Inquiry classified Fakhrami's death as due to torture.

Recent events against Bahrainian media has resulted in Reporters without Borders issuing this statement: "The Kingdom of Bahrain (173rd) plunged 29 places to become one of the world’s 10 most repressive countries. Bahraini and foreign journalists were systematically hounded from February onwards. An entire arsenal of measures were taken to prevent information circulating about the evolving situation in the country. At the same time, the authorities made extensive use of the media to put out pro-government propaganda. The creation of an independent commission of enquiry did not end the abuses against journalists. It just helped to ensure that, as a result of the undertakings given by the authorites, the rest of the world stopped talking about Bahrain."

Over the phone, opposition activist Mohammed al-Maskati complained that the pro-government media is falsely claiming that Shia clerical leaders were behind the mass demonstrations over the last month. To combat pro-government media bias citizen reporters have become an active part of the protest movement. Footage posted on YouTube shows unarmed protesters being shot. The uploader of one of the videos commented, saying that, after the individual in the video had been shot they were refused treatment at the hospital. Another video shows him receiving medical treatment in a local home. The Bahrain government has made moves to block information from citizen reporters and sites used by protesters. "The Bahrain Centre for Human Rights said that Bahraini authorities were blocking a Facebook group being used for planned protests on 14 February, and that its own website had been blocked for many years"