Bahrain The Media War

If the 2011 uprising in Bahrain was difficult to cover, the first anniversary, which was marked on February 14, was near impossible to report on. Over the last year, the Bahraini government has been scaling up its information control apparatus and media access to the country is rigorously monitored and managed by the government and its team of Western PR advisors. Many journalists who applied to enter the country for the one-year anniversary were refused by Bahraini officials who said they could not handle the volume of visa applications they received. The government did, however, grant entry to a select few foreign news outlets. The German news weekly Der Spiegel was among them and on the eve of the anniversary, the magazine ran an exclusive interview with Bahrain's king, Sheikh Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa. Within the country, the king's media presence was much more visible, with state TV running hours of footage of the royal family celebrating the 11-year-old Bahraini National Reform Charter - a programme that initiated political change in the country, but which opponents say does not go anywhere near far enough. Our News Divide this week focuses on the Bahraini uprising one year on and the media battle that continues to rage in the island country.