A Bahrain TV report aired on Saturday evening revealed the non-professionalism and unethical reporting practices of “Al Wasat” newspaper while covering the unfolding events in the Kingdom in the recent past.
“The paper has adhered to lies, falsification and plagiarism as its guiding principles for the sake of deceiving its readers through publishing fabricated stories and photos, and thus directly and deliberately posing a real threat to the Kingdom’s security and stability,” the TV report maintained.
The report, covering the paper’s coverage from March 25 to 28, supported by strong sound and image evidence, leaves no doubt that AWasat has purposefully published made-up news and photos during that period, which constitutes a crime punishable by both the Kingdom’s Penal Code and the Press and Publications Law.
The report gives evidence that Al Wasat News has disseminated old news published in other Arab, local newspapers, websites and blogs and changed the names of persons who also, as revealed by a letter from the President of the Central Informatics Organization to the Information Affairs Authority (IAA),turned to be unreal.
In addition, the report shows that Al Wasat has covered incidents it claimed they took place in Bahrain, but it appeared that they actually happened elsewhere in the Occupied Palestinian territories and Morocco, which means that many human rights organizations and countries have relied on baseless information when commenting on the situation in Bahrain.
Al Wasat also intentionally allowed its readers to write comments on those fabricated news so as to incite them to blame and insult sovereign institutions of the kingdom including the security establishment. For instance, it showed a Bahrain citizen and claimed that he was beaten severely by the security officers and taken to hospital, and after analyzing the details, it emerged that the person was a Moroccan national beaten by Moroccan police in 2005 and that it was stolen from a Saudi forum.
The paper also announced that a Bahraini boy was attacked by a policeman, but the report proved that the policeman was an Israeli one, which is a direct distortion of the establishment of Bahraini Police.
The report also gives evidence that Al Wasat has deliberately been selective concerning the incidents reported or the words or expressions used in comments, which, leaves no doubt that it has malicious intentions for which it has used all its potentials and deceptive means in order to persuade its readers of what is going on in Bahrain.
According to the report, the newspaper has breached Article 168 of the Kingdom’s Penal Code and the Royal Decree 47 of the year 2002 on the organisation of the press, printing and publishing.
For these reasons, the report added, a legal action can be taken against Al Wasat newspaper, and it can be suspended by the court. “The IAA President can also suspend it.”
According to some other reports the Chairman of the Dar Al Wasat Board of directors Farouq Almoayyed reportedly stepped down and handed over the responsibility to the Editor-in-Chief of Al Wasat Newspaper.
More details can be found at http://www.bna.bh/portal/sites/default/files/alwasat.pdf