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Bahrain minister Al Romaihi insists national character assassination is not freedom of speech

Bahrain’s Information Minister Ali Al Romaihi has called for collective Arab action against television channels that threaten public order and security under the guise of freedom of speech.

“Based on the importance of the media as a weapon and its impact on Arab national security, we emphasise the urgent need to adopt serious steps against any media that is seditious, incites violence, extremism and terrorism, is not committed to accuracy, honesty, objectivity and credibility, and does not respect the dignity of Arab peoples and countries and their national sovereignty,” Al Romaihi said.

“Decisions have to be within the Arab and international media charters and agreements,” he said in Cairo where he chaired the meeting of the Arab information ministers.

Al Romaihi deplored the existence of satellite channels in the heart of the region over the past years with practices that had nothing to do with true media work.

“Their practices are not genuine media work and are far from the professional and ethical standards embraced for the sake of free and responsible expression of opinion. They are involved in suspicious conspiracies to support terrorism and sectarian strife, to promote bias towards extremist terror groups and to distort facts.”

Al Romaihi said that when he last year called for measures to help ensure such media are not allowed to incite violence, extremism and terrorism, there were accusations about limiting freedom of expression.

“In the West — believed by some people to be the realm of ideals and model attitudes — there is no absolute or undisciplined freedom like in our Arab media. When a Western country bans a satellite channel to preserve its national security, there are no reactions,” Al Romaihi said.

“Let us quickly recall the new media culture established by Qatar’s Al Jazeera channel and the like that did not abide by the principles and ethics of media work. God orders us in His Book to argue, using the best arguments. Yet, Al Jazeera opted to consolidate harassment and attacks on all, except on Qataris. Arab viewers were forced to see new sights and hear new terms as the channel promoted some people for specific purposes and objectives.”

The minister added that attacks by Al Jazeera on the Arab League, the GCC, Arab armies and other Arab countries, and particularly Saudi Arabia and the UAE, were not freedom of speech.