RSF urges Bahraini authorities to let journalist travel abroad
Reporters Without Borders (RSF) deplores the way the Bahraini authorities have stopped reporter Nazeeha Saeed from leaving the country twice in the past few days without giving any explanation and calls on them to allow her to travel.
“The authorities deny there is any ban on Nazeeha Saeed travelling abroad but the police have repeatedly prevented her from leaving without giving any grounds,” said Alexandra El Khazen, the head of RSF’s Middle East desk. “We urge the authorities to explain themselves without delay.”
The correspondent of France 24, Radio Monte-Carlo Doualiya and various pan-Arab media outlets such as the website Raseef22 and newspaper Al-Hayat, Nazeeha Saeed wanted to fly to Europe for a vacation early morning on 29 June but was turned back at Manama airport by a police officer who was unable to explain the reason for the ban.
Accompanied by her lawyer, Hameed Al Mulla, she went to the immigration department, the public prosecutor’s office and the Criminal Investigation department (CID). At each place, officials denied the existence of any order forbidding her from travelling abroad.
Nonetheless, when she tried to leave the later during the day by using King Fahd Causeway, which links the Island of Bahrain with the nearby Saudi mainland, she was again turned back. Who is responsible?
“This situation is frustrating,” Saeed told RSF. “I am every worried. What is going to happen next?”
Around 15 journalists and bloggers are currently detained in the Kingdom of Bahrain, which is ranked 162nd out of 180 countries in RSF’s 2016 World Press Freedom Index.
