Last week Reporters Sans Frontiers released their annual world index of press freedom. Who knew? It wasn't in any of the local news. Not even a mention. Care to guess why?
Because the only time our precious media is keen to report anything about league tables of whatever is when Bahrain climbs up in the rankings. And this year, according to RSF, Bahrain have plummeted a whopping 23 places, down from 96 to 119. Impressive. We're tied with Angola, and just one measly place ahead of Bangladesh - also recently dubbed 'the most corrupt country on earth' or something to that effect. We're well behind Qatar, Oman, the UAE and Kuwait, but not to worry - at least we're ahead of Iraq, Iran, Saudi, Egypt and Libya.
All this in a year where Bahrain has been talking up it's free press credentials. Just a pointer- pretending that we have free press does not make it so. And publishing an endless tirade of propaganda in local media about how free our press is doesn't make it any more free.
Maybe we just misinterpreted the rules. Maybe the Minsteress for Informology and Culturisation thought that ensuring the BNA website was free of charge for all those brave enough to wrestle with the lingo was enough. Maybe they studied the price of our newspaper(s) in relation to the rest of the world and determined that while we weren't quite free (not counting Al Waseet of course), at least we are pretty cheap. I don't know.
But the biggest gripe I have is that our press is too fucking scared to even talk about how free our press isn't. Not even a whisper. Nothing. The Emirates mentioned it a bit, but that's because they only fell by a measly 17 places in the rankings, despite having new laws that make it illegal to say bad shit about anyone or the economy or someone's horse. We on the other hand, despite all our CAPITAL LETTERS professing Bahrain's awesomeness managed somehow to plummet a whopping 23 places. Our 'media' loves to talk about rankings - be it how 'Free' our economy is, how 'good' we are at football, that we are ranked 'high' in the UN human development index... but when it comes to talking about one of the only rankings that really matters... we get silence. It could be down to incredibly bad reporting, which we know is a chronic Bahraini disease. Maybe the GDN and whoever else didn't get emailed a press release to cut and paste. Whatever. We should all be ashamed.
Obama became president and the USA climbed 16 places or so. We get ourselves a new Minister of Informativeness and we plummet 23 places. Hmmm... If that's not a measure of job performance, what is?
Seriously, did anyone think Bahrain's press could get any worse? Any less 'free'? Lets blame democracy. And education. If people couldn't read, then publishers could print whatever the hell they felt like. Maybe if we made reading illegal, like most of the internet seems to be... Alternatively, lets just pretend we already know everything. Then there'd be no need for press, and hence press freedom would be irrelevant. Wait, don't we already do that?
How dare you make fun of this incredibull beautifool understamping country?! Infidel! I hope you get stoned to death for your remarks!
ReplyDeleteOur press is free.. our newspapers should manufacture toilet paper.. our incredulby fast interwebs is censored to keep us away from the big bad world, so that our kids may grow up into good god fearing narrow minded imbeciles.. and our MPs have the collective IQ of lint. Whats not to like?
P.S I was kidding about the 'to death' part.. and about getting stoned.. I'll invite you the next time I get some weed :D
Great job on your articles man, but I believe the press and the internet shouldn't be free. I've known many innocent young people who have died cruel deaths by pornographic material on the internet. Every time I see the site blocked warning after going on a random website with absolutely no ties to pornographic material, I rejoice that many of my Bahraini brothers (and sisters) will be saved from this sin. So I truly believe that censorship is the cure, be it press, be it internet, be it at our homes that we have to cover our genitalia while taking a shit. It's all for the greater good. So the next time you criticize our press freedom, remember those in charge know more about our own good than we do, even though sometimes it seems that they're choices are pretty stupid. I'm sure they have great reasons to go through with them and not simply because they hate freedom and are retards.
ReplyDeleteFair dinkum as we non Brits say. The more I read, I swear you are one and the same as I posted in another place on your wonderful blog.
ReplyDeleteI really used to think it was only me and others just played lip service to my own rants.
Or if conspiracy theories really do hold water, you might be a collection agency for the location of all descenters as we go along with you on this blog, trusting your discretion.
Good stuff anyway, so never stop. But if you really are www.geghopkins.com then it is self praise because he praises you!
Hi MAria, I knew Geg for many years since the 80's. It can't be him because this site is too literary.....
ReplyDelete