Bahrain Mirror-Exclusive: Reporters Without Borders (RSF) urged in a statement it published on its website the Bahraini authorities to overturn journalist Nazeeha Saeed's conviction on a charge of working illegally, which has been upheld on appeal. RSF also called on the authorities to stop violating media freedom.

"The Kingdom of Bahrain must immediately quash Nazeeha Saeed's conviction and allow her to resume working freely as a journalist again," said Alexandra El Khazen, the head of RSF's Middle East desk. "The Bahraini authorities must also cease their repeated attacks on the media."

Saeed is the only correspondent to have been prosecuted for working without a permit, but last year the authorities refused to renew the accreditation of at least five Bahraini journalists working for international media such as Agence France-Presse, the Associated Press, France 24 and Reuters. She is also part of the international #FightImpunity campaign that RSF launched in November 2015 with the aim of putting pressure on governments to prosecute those responsible for crimes of violence against journalists.

According to RSF's tally, 14 journalists and citizen-journalists are currently detained in Bahrain just for covering sensitive subjects. The regime has been censoring dissent and cracking down on dissident journalists since 2011. The crackdown intensified again in 2016 and the last independent newspaper, Al Wasat, was closed arbitrarily a month ago.

Bahrain is ranked 164th out of 180 countries in RSF's 2017 World Press Freedom Index.

Arabic Version