Three journalists put on trial

The trial of three of the opposition newspaper Al-Wasat’s most senior journalists – editor Mansour Al-Jamari, managing editor Walid Nouihid and local news editor Aqil Mirza – began before a criminal court. They were accused of disseminating false information that undermined the country’s international image and reputation (http://en.rsf.org/bahraini-and-syrian-authorities-04-04-2011,39946.html). Jamari told Reuters that the prosecutors had added the charge of intending to cause instability in Bahrain, which carries a two-year sentence. They pleaded not guilty. Jamari acknowledged that six articles with false information did appear in Al-Wasat but he said all six were emailed to the newspaper together with bogus phone numbers from the same IP address in what appeared to be a deliberate ploy to get the newspaper to publish wrong information.