Bahraini.TV

‘Unrealistic’ rights report slammed

A top government official and a leading opposition member have criticised as unfair and unrealistic an annual global report which ranks the country alongside Afghanistan, China and North Korea in terms of political freedom and civil liberties.
Bahrain is one of five countries downgraded into the “not free” category of Freedom House’s Freedom In The World [...]

Global monitors to probe concerns

Global monitors will meet government officials in Bahrain today over human rights issues.
Representatives from the Dublin-based Front Line, who visit countries to analyse the treatment of activists in their native countries, are in Manama to speak with activists and authorities on the situation here.
They are due to meet with officials from the Ministries of Foreign [...]

Bahraini’s prison ordeal ‘inhuman’

A human rights activist has criticised the “inhuman” conditions of a Bahraini being held in a Thai prison for allegedly trafficking women to Bahrain to work as prostitutes.
Bahrain Human Rights Watch Society (BHRWS) secretary-general Faisal Fulad met the suspect, who claims he is innocent, at the prison yesterday.
The man claimed he was being held in [...]

Arab countries flop on human rights

Human rights deteriorated across the Arab world in 2009 with torture widely practised in several countries, namely Egypt, an Arab watchdog said in a report released on Tuesday.
The report by the independent Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies surveyed 12 countries and said that most of them repressed human rights activists, press freedoms and discriminated [...]

Dubai police chief calls to scrap sponsorship

Dubai’s police chief on Wednesday called for controversial labour laws that restrict the free movement of workers to be scrapped.
Lt Gen Dhahi Khalfan Tamim described the sponsorship system as a “burden” on the UAE’s economy and local population, UAE daily the National reported on its website.

“Employment contracts should be between companies and employees,” Tamim said [...]

Nurses threaten strike over pay

Nurses could bring Bahrain’s hospitals and clinics to a standstill unless the government responds to their demand for a 50 per cent pay rise.

Impressive move

Draft law scraps jail terms for journalists
In a major move to give a further boost to the Fourth Estate in the Kingdom, the Cabinet yesterday endorsed a draft law to amend the 2002 Press legislation and scrap jail terms for journalists.
The weekly Cabinet meeting, chaired by the Prime Minister, Shaikh Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa, [...]

Free to speak out

Freedom of expression in Bahrain yesterday received a major boost as the amended law on Press and publications was approved.Chaired by Prime Minister Shaikh Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa, the Cabinet gave the green light to this important step as Bahrain joined hands with the international community to celebrate World Press Freedom Day.
Under new law [...]

Abuse claims by doctors refuted

Several Bahrainis arrested over rioting last December were beaten in custody, according to court-appointed medical examiners. The doctors’ report, submitted as 15 Bahrainis appeared in the High Criminal Court amid tight security yesterday, was immediately disputed by the Public Prosecution.
Riot police ringed the court building as the case resumed, after an earlier hearing was adjourned [...]

Bahrain to sign key UN rights convention

Bahrain last night agreed to consider signing the Convention on the Protection of Persons from Enforced Disappearances after a series of recommendations by the UN Human Rights Council.
The council recommendations came after Bahrain’s Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of its human rights record was discussed by the council at its meeting in Geneva on Tuesday.
Bahrain became [...]

UN report praises Bahrain’s progress

Bahrain is being urged in a United Nations human rights report to scrap its amnesty for officials allegedly involved in abuses before February 2001.
The UN Human Rights Council praises Bahrain for stamping out such abuses, but criticises the “blanket amnesty” for previous alleged violations.
There should be no “immunity for officials who have perpetrated or acquiesced [...]

Tougher anti-riot measures vowed

Riot police will be forced to use more potentially lethal methods to disperse rioters if MPs ban them from using chemicals, the Interior Ministry warned yesterday.
All substances currently being used in Bahrain to disperse rioters are internationally approved, military courts director Major Humood Saad told parliament at its weekly session.
He said that they were natural [...]

Appeal to drop activist’s case

An international organisation has backed calls for legal proceedings against a Bahrain human rights activist to be dropped. Bahrain Youth Society for Human Rights president Mohammed Al Maskati was summoned to the Lower Criminal Court earlier this month to answer charges of “activating an unregistered association before issuing the declaration of registration”.
The 1987 Law of [...]

Feud claim as probe panel puts off quizzing doctor

A meeting in which Bahrain Medical Society president Dr Abdulla Al Ajmi was to present himself before a Health Ministry investigation committee was postponed yesterday, allegedly due to quarrels within the group.
The ministry formed an investigation committee to look into comments he made in the local Arabic Press earlier this month, in which he said [...]

Batelco sackings are condemned

Human rights activists yesterday condemned Batelco’s sacking of two union officials, saying it breached an international United Nations convention which Bahrain ratified only this week.
Acting trade union chairman Majed Suhrab and union research and development committee head member Faisal Ghazwan were dismissed on Wednesday, after organising wildcat rallies to demand a 25 per cent pay [...]