Bahrain to bring France 24 correspondent to trial amid media crackdown

Bahraini authorities are to put a female journalist on trial early next year as the Al Khalifah regime intensifies crackdown against civil society in the tiny Persian Gulf kingdom.

On Monday, Bahrain's Public Prosecution set January 16 as the date for the hearing of Nazeeha Saeed, a Bahraini correspondent working for France 24 television news network and Paris-based Radio Monte-Carlo Doualiya, Arabic-language Bahrain Mirror news website reported.

Saeed was called to the public prosecutor’s office on July 17 and was charged with "working for foreign media outlets without a permit.”

This came two weeks after Bahraini officials imposed a travel ban on her. She learned about the ban on June 29, after she was prevented from boarding a flight.

Saeed’s license expired earlier this year but Bahrain’s Information Affairs Authority (IAA) refused to renew it. She faces a fine of up to 1,000 Bahraini dinars ($2,652).

The Bahraini correspondent has reported for Radio Monte Carlo for 12 years and for France 24 for seven years.

In May 2011, Saeed was tortured by Bahraini regime forces for reporting on pro-democracy demonstrations in the kingdom. In November 2015, Bahraini authorities decided not to prosecute her torturers.

“Bahrain is making real journalism impossible. Nazeeha Saeed is a leading reporter, and that is why they are trying to silence her. Bahrain’s international allies, the UK and US, must condemn this regressive assault on the fourth estate,” the director of advocacy at the Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy, Sayed Ahmed Alwadaei, said in July.

The Committee to Protect Journalists, a New York-based NGO, reported last year that there were five journalists in prison in Bahrain, all of them freelancers.

Thousands of anti-regime protesters have held numerous demonstrations in Bahrain on an almost daily basis ever since a popular uprising began in the kingdom in February 2011.

They are demanding that the Al Khalifah dynasty relinquish power and a just system representing all Bahrainis be established.

Manama has gone to great lengths to clamp down on dissent and rights activists. On March 14, 2011, troops from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates were deployed to Bahrain to assist the Manama government in its crackdown.

Scores of people have lost their lives and hundreds of others sustained injuries or got arrested as a result of the Al Khalifah regime’s crackdown on anti-regime activists.

Press TV’s website can also be accessed at the following alternate addresses:

www.presstv.co.uk