Bahrain
According to the World Press Freedom Index (WPFI) for 2020 Bahrain is ranked 169 place out of 180 in total. For the past seven years Bahrain remained quite stable and hasn’t experienced crucial changes in ranking.
The WPFI is an annual country ranking focused on an overview of the organization’s own evaluation of the past year’s press freedom records of the countries. Its creators are Reporters Without Borders, who state that the index deals with press freedom but does not assess the quality of journalism. Bahrain has been experiencing a violation of press freedom. For the year 2021 already two journalists have been killed and almost 300 are imprisoned at the moment.
Once portrayed as a promising model for political change and democratic progress, Bahrain has become one of the most restrictive central Asian constitutional monarchies. The Sunni-led kingdom has routinely abolished a wide range of human rights and civil liberties, crushed the political opposition, and brutally cracked down on sustained dissent within the Shiite community after violently suppressing a prominent pro-democracy protest movement in 2011.
Bahrain is rated as “not free” in Freedom in the World, the annual Freedom House report. Freedom House is a non-governmental organization headquartered in the United States, commissioned by the American government, that conducts research and advocacy on democracy, political freedom, and human rights. The report assesses the state of civil and political rights on a scale from 1 (most free) to 7 (least free).
As the government cracked down on representatives of the media reporting the peaceful pro-democracy demonstrations that started in February, restrictions on press freedom grew dramatically in 2011. As a result of their work, countless journalists and bloggers were abused, threatened, detained, and allegedly tortured.
The global freedom status of Bahrain for 2020 is calculated to be 11 out of 100. The evaluation is based on a select group of territories, consisting of numerical ratings and descriptive texts for each country. The Bahraini media reporting of news and politics is more objective and independent than reporting in most other Gulf nations, considering the threats and limitations, as well as the pervasive self-censorship arising primarily from a fear of legal battles over defamation or false reporting.
In order to maintain their operations, newspapers rely heavily on advertising sales, and some practice self-censorship to avoid upsetting advertisers who do not want their companies associated with critical reporting. The government retains its control over all mass media and, despite continued interest from media corporations, private operating licenses are not authorized.
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Lora Dimitrova is studying Journalism and International Relations at the American University in Bulgaria. She’s interested in writing poetry and reading books.
