14 Feb 12 | Middle East and North Africa
This week the departure lounge at Bahrain’s airport seems to be full of people who were turned back at the passport desk without being allowed into the country. The authorities are incredibly sensitive about who’s going to see what and report what during the days around the 14 February anniversary of last year’s mass protests.
Bob Naiman, an American who was refused entry a couple of days ago, said that groups of British and Spanish business people were among the human rights observers and journalists being shut out. I didn’t get that far myself this time. I’d planned to go to Bahrain at the end of January, but a week before I was going to leave I received the dreaded letter telling me not to bother, that I should wait until March before I tried to get into Bahrain, when a committee set up to implement reforms would have done its work.
The week before Rick Sollom from Physicians for Human Rights was turned away when he landed in Bahrain. Authorities told him that “all government officials are under tremendous work pressure” and that he should come back after the end of February when a trip would be “more beneficial.” Then last week some journalists were allowed visas to enter and others weren’t, notably Nick Kristof of the New York Times, whose brilliant coverage of Bahrain has made him persona non grata with the regime.
These are stiff reminders that the Bahraini government should be judged on its actions, not its words. Denying (rather, “delaying”) access to human rights organisations is a hallmark of repressive regimes. Bahrain already ticked many of those boxes in 2011. Mass arrests? Check. Torture? Check? Deaths in custody? Check. Shootings of civilians? Unfair trials? Attacks on places of worship? Targeting of peaceful dissidents? Check, check, check, check.
Of course Bahrainis are more than capable of reporting what happens and distributing it everywhere, which makes the attempts to restrict access all the more farcical. Bahraini activists and journalists are among the most tech-savvy in the world, and events are being relayed at the speed of Twitter both day and night. So why Bahrain thinks it’s a good PR move to keep prominent international human rights organisations and journalists out is anyone’s guess. No-one really benefits from this — we don’t get in, and the Bahraini government looks bad. The only winner is the coffee shop in the departure lounge.
Brian Dooley is the director of the Human Rights Defenders programme at Human Rights First. He tweets at @dooley_dooley
14 Feb 12 | Academic Freedom, Middle East and North Africa
I worked in higher education in Bahrain at the College of Arts, University of Bahrain from 2007-2008, and at Bahrain Teachers College, University of Bahrain — founded in 2008 as a key part of the Crown Prince’s “Bahrain 2030 Vision” from 2008-2011 — where I was Academic Head of Continuing Professional Development, and was closely involved in the start-up of the college. The last time I set foot there was 13March 2011, when I bore witness to an attack on a peaceful anti-government protest by armed outsiders, followed by a general melee involving pro- and anti-government supporters, the latter backed up by the riot police. I sent testimony and supporting evidence based on what I witnessed to the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry (BICI).
The University of Bahrain, Bahrain Teachers College, and Bahrain Polytechnic have effectively lost whatever autonomy they once had from the Bahrain Ministry of Education, and are now an extension of the regime. The Bahrain Ministry of Education is deeply complicit in repression. From mid-2010 onwards, I witnessed the toxic effects of institutionalised sectarianism, the suppression of academic freedom and the violation of civil and human rights at the University of Bahrain. These continue to this day.
The University of Bahrain refused to accept my May 2011 resignation, thereby depriving me of a substantial settlement, citing surveillance of my Internet use to invoke contract clauses against “unauthorised political activity” and “promoting sectarianism”. My wife and I are now prohibited from re-entering Bahrain.
In December 2011 the Middle East Studies Association (MESA) presented its Academic Freedom Award to:
…all faculty, students and staff of Bahraini institutions of higher education who, by speaking out, documenting abuses, and engaging in myriad other forms of resistance have struggled against a range of brutal assaults by the Bahraini government upon academic freedom and upon the autonomy and integrity of the country’s educational institutions.
On 20 September 2011 MESA wrote its third letter of 2011 to Dr Majed Al Noaimi, the Bahrain Minister of Education, to express its “serious concern over the ongoing assaults, arrests, and dismissals of individuals connected to academic institutions in Bahrain”
On 27 November 2011 The Chronicle of Higher Education reported “…attacks on academic freedom, including the dismissals of professors and students for participating in political demonstrations last spring”, while on the 16 May it reported that the University of Bahrain was ” requiring students to sign pledges of support for the government of King Hamed ibn Isa Khalifa”.
When these abuses were pointed out to the University of Edinburgh in early 2012, it pulled out of a proposed deal with the Ministry of Education. Rector-elect at the University of Edinburgh Peter McColl e-mailed me on 26 January, saying “I share your concerns” and Edinburgh University Student Association President Matthew McPherson wrote a handwritten letter to me on 27 January stating: “The student body at Edinburgh shares your concerns, and I am glad the University has decided to withdraw the agreement in question”.
Finally, Edinburgh University’s Principal wrote to me on 30 January saying: “Your letter was of interest and I note your personal experience and the important information it contained. I am in a position to confirm that the University of Edinburgh will not proceed with the work in question.”
University internationalisation is fast becoming and important revenue stream for cash-strapped UK universities. More positively, it leads to the internationalization of curricula, and a globalised learning environment for all students. Governments are also keen to use quality higher education institutions as a means of projecting “soft power”. However, to be sustainable, internationalisation has to have an ethical dimension if such relationships are not to be used as PR to legitimise oppressive regimes. The University of Edinburgh withdrawal is important, since now other UK universities contemplating involvement with Bahrain will have to follow Edinburgh’s lead, or explain why they have a different set of ethical standards.
The ball is now in Bahrain’s court. If it wants real higher education reform, the deeper crises of political legitimacy, representation, human rights and equality of opportunity will have to be addressed first. A tree that has been planted in unprepared soil will die.
Mike Diboll is former head of Professional Development at the Bahrain Teacher’s College, with an interest in education and the Middle East. He tweets at @MikeDiboll
14 Feb 12 | Middle East and North Africa
After the events of 13 March 2011 and the shameful attack on University of Bahrain (UoB) students by a group of militias that supported by the Bahraini regime, the UOB administration dismissed more than 400 innocent students and many of them get arrested. I was one of the students expelled because of participating in some protests in and outside the university.
A while later, the administration decided to bring the expelled students, but not all of them, back for the start of the next semester. There are more than 30 banned who have not been allowed to continue studying at University of Bahrain. The university changed to a place that you could not study in; it was like a military base with scattered checkpoints. Many students could not attend their classes on time because of the checkpoints. Barbed wire surrounded everything. The General Directorate of Criminal Investigation (CID) agents were in every corner. Armed forces were spreading at all of the gates, and there were more pictures of the regime than educational boards and banners in the university.
In addition, two female students kidnapped from the campus were tortured by masked people with the assistance of University of Bahrain security.
A few months ago, University of Bahrain administration told the rest of the expelled students that they can continue studying by the beginning of the next term. Afterwards, a group of regime supporters protested at the campus against the decision, but neither the security team nor the Ministry of Interior (MoI) forces tried to stop them by saying it was peaceful, proving the double standards about dealing with protests and gatherings
Mohammed Bahar is a University of Bahrain student who was dismissed during the crackdown last year
14 Feb 12 | Middle East and North Africa
The Bahraini government spends thousands and thousands of dollars on PR companies every month. Their purpose of using such companies is simple: to project a positive image of Bahrain while also tempering any negative press coverage.
One such company is Qorvis, a Washington D.C. Based PR firm that receives a monthly stipend from the Bahraini government of 40,000 USD. They operate by attempting to influence journalists or opinion makers through the strategic placement of favourable reports defending the actions of the Bahrain government. Their methods range from circulating articles on outlets such as PR Newsire, to emailing journalists directly in order to defend the actions of the regime.
Some PR companies are also suspected of engaging in more clandestine activities, such as creating sock puppet accounts on Twitter to spread pro-regime propaganda. The revelation that BGR Gabara, yet another British PR firm reportedly working for Bahrain, planned to organise a Twitter campaign on behalf of Kazakh children exacerbated such concerns. Given that the US government are also involved in such sock puppetry, there is no reason the private sector won’t seek to profit from it.
Another dimension of PR work is minimising negative publicity. For example, the Guardian recently took down an article from its Comment is Free section after a British PR firm representing the Bahrain International Circuit made a complaint. The article, which Dragon Associates argued contained “considerable inaccuracies”, threatened to derail Bahrain’s plans to host the F1 Grand Prix this year. It has yet to be put back up, either in its original or altered form.
Perhaps the most worrying players in the murky world of PR are the likes of Olton, a British intelligence firm who officially have a contract with the Economic Development Board, but who also appear to work for Ministry of the Interior. As well as providing “reputation management”, their software is reported to be able to identify “ringleaders” through using social media such as Twitter and Facebook. Given that dozens of students were dismissed from university based on evidence garnered from their Facebook profiles, many are demanding to know who is doing the watching.
The threat posed by unscrupulous PR companies to freedom of speech should not be underestimated. It is bad enough that they distort the public sphere in exchange for money, yet it is the rise of companies like Olton that is the most alarming, for when does intelligence gathering become ‘evidence’ gathering? Furthermore, when does “reputation management” involve facilitating the silencing of those narratives that oppose the desired rhetoric of the paying client?
Marc Owen Jones is a blogger and PhD candidate at Durham University. He tweets at @marcowenjones
