Al-Jazeera not wanted in Bahrain

Reporters Without Borders (Reporters sans frontières - RSF) expressed concern today at Bahrain's refusal to allow the Qatari TV station Al-Jazeera to report on the country's municipal elections and warned that such a ban would "seriously damage" the country's image. "We regret that Bahrain is joining the long list of Arab countries that do not tolerate the freedom of expression heard in Al-Jazeera's programmes," said RSF secretary-general Robert Ménard in a letter to information minister Nabil Yacub el-Hamer. "Any station should be allowed to cover the elections," he said, noting that Bahrain so far had a "fairly good reputation" where press freedom was concerned. The government blocked access in March to at least five Internet websites, some of them run by the opposition, charging that they were "platforms for spreading tendentious news, rumours and lies." The minister earlier today rejected Al-Jazeera's application to cover the elections, saying the station was "trying to harm Bahrain" and was "infiltrated by Zionists." The refusal is thought to have been prompted by the station's unauthorised coverage of demonstrations in the Bahraini capital against the Israeli offensive on the West Bank.