Bahrain
The situation for Bahrain's media has deteriorated in the past year as ongoing demonstrations have been met with curtailment of both civil liberties and media freedom. On a fact-finding mission in late 2011, IMS together with its international partners found a number of human rights violations related to the Bahraini authorities' handling of protests and demonstrations since February 2011, including an ongoing suppresion of the media and civil society with journalists and human rights defenders facing military trials, life imprisonment, torture and harassment.Archive
- Al-Khawaja's daughter: "They have signed his death certificate"
- IRCT warns Bahraini government of imminent danger to Al-Khawaja's life
- Freedom of expression deteriorates further in Bahrain
- International push for the release of Al-Khawaja continues
- Until 'freedom or death' in Bahrain
- Bahrain: Human rights defender enters 50th day on hunger strike
- Forty-five rights groups call on King to free Abdulhadi Al-Khawaja, whose life is at risk in prison
- Bahrain: Masking suppression of the media
- Bahrain: Prominent human rights defender on hunger strike
- Justice Denied in Bahrain: Freedom of Expression and Assembly Curtailed
- Promises for reform in Bahrain unfulfilled, while situation deteriorates
- International delegation to Bahrain: End violations of freedom of expression and human rights
- Debate on Bahrain: Shouting in the dark
- Bahrain upholds life sentence for prominent human rights defender
- Seminar on human rights in Bahrain
- Human rights defender Abdulhadi al-Khawaja receives life sentence in Bahrain
- Bahraini authorities are urged to give human rights defender fair trial
- Limited access for foreign journalists in Bahrain
- Storytelling with Soundslides in Bahrain
Debate on Bahrain: Shouting in the dark
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Bahrain – a country that has been somewhat overlooked by international media amidst the other revolutions unfolding in the Arab region. Debate and film-viewling today in Cinemateket in Copenhagen at 4 pm
If a tree falls in a forest and there is no one around to hear it, does it make a sound? What impact does the presence of the media have on a revolution? What if the cameras are not rolling?
The film "Bahrain: Shouting in the Dark" will set the scene for a debate on Bahrain on 8 November in Cinemateket in Copenhagen, unfolds the dramatic and hopeless situation facing Bahrainian society, as its people fight for their right to be heard and to be part of the Arab Spring.
On the panel will be Commissioning Editor Jon Blair of Al-Jazeera who will elaborate on the production of "Shouting in the Dark" in Bahrain as well as Maryam Alkhawaja, prominent human rights activist and Head of Foreign Relations at the Bahrain Center for Human Rights. Maryam Al-Khawaja is an active voice for the demonstrators in the struggle for democracy and civil rights in the Middle East. Her father, Abdulhadi Alkhawaja, has been imprisoned in Bahrain since the demonstrations in February this year.
When: Tuesday, 8 November at 16:00
Where: Cinemateket, Gothersgade 55, 1123 Copenhagen K
FREE OF CHARGE
The film and debate are part of a series of seminars and film-viewings on the Arab Spring titled "Free Radicals" organised by IMS in collaboration with CPH:DOX, the Copenhagen Documentary Film Festival which takes place between 3 - 13 November. For more information on participants, please contact hwa[snabela]i-m-s.dk.
About the film "Bahrain: Shouting in the Dark"
Director: May Ying Welsh - Qatar, Bahrain, USA 2010 - 51 min
A country that seems to be forgotten by the world, with its people being at the mercy of their dictator. 'Bahrain: Shouting in the Dark' unfolds the dramatic and hopeless situation which Bahraini society is facing. The people's attempt to be one of the Arab Spring's success stories fails as a result of the ruthless and intransigent actions of their oppressors. Filmed undercover in Bahrain over the course of three months, the film follows the saga of a people fighting for democratic rights who broke the barriers of fear.
The film is set in the inside of a hospital where doctors and nurses try the impossible - to treat the interminable torrent of incoming wounded protesters and state militia with their last ounces of strength. They conduct their work with devotion and respect for humanity, and yet: one will remain shocked and speechless after watching the film, knowing that all of them are sentenced by now. The protests have been strangled at birth - 'Shouting in the Dark' remains the last testimony of a forgotten country.
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