Bahrain registration decree
p2pnet.net News:- Claiming it`s merely trying to protect copyrights, the Kingdom of Bahrain in the Arabian Gulf has decreed all web site owners must register their names, addresses and telephone numbers with the Information Ministry.
“This is not a repressive step,” Jamal Dawood, the ministry’s head of press and publications, told Reporters Without Borders. “On the contrary it is intended to protect people running websites, who in future will be able to protect their rights of authorship.”
Sites have six months from May 2 to register and even personal web sites will have to comply.
Dawood admits site owners can’t register online, says RWB. Instead, they`ll have to go to the ministry in person.
After each registration was validated, the person in charge would receive an ID number that would have to be posted on the site, says RWB, quoting Mansur Al Jamri, editor of the Bahraini daily Al Wasat, as saying:
“It is to be expected that defamation and insult should be banned on the Internet. However the information ministry’s action could jeopardise freedom of expression.
Website editors and forum moderators will become 100 percent responsible for the content of the site, in the same way as a newspaper editor.”
Three Bahrainis detained in February were released last month, but their passports have been confiscated, says the Associated Press, adding:
“They may yet be prosecuted for running a site accused of criticizing the royal family, inciting hatred against the government and spreading false information that could destabilize the nation.”
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See:-
Reporters Without Borders – Reporters Without Borders denounces press freedom threat in website registration, April 26, 2005
Associated Press – Bahrain site registration sparks protests April 28, 2005
April 29th, 2005 at 4:42 am
Information Ministry huh? Do they have Ministries of Peace and Love as well? Or was it Truth, Peace and Love. It’s been a while since i’ve read 1984.
April 29th, 2005 at 7:43 am
I noted that you have used the wrong term of “Arabian Gulf” instead of the historical and internationally recognized term of the Persian Gulf in the strory “Bahrain registration decree”;
http://p2pnet.net/story/4679
I would like to point out that according to all historical/geographical documents, also United Nations’ directives, the name of this waterway which separates Iran (Persia) from Arabian Peninsula is the PERSIAN GULF :
UN Links :
http://www.un.org/Depts/Cartographic/map/profile/westasia.pdf
http://www.un.org/Depts/Cartographic/map/profile/iran.pdf
http://www.un.org/depts/dhl/maplib/docs/escwa.pdf
PERSIAN GULF is also the only term used by the U.S. Department of State:
http://www.state.gov/p/nea/ci/c2422.htm
or http://www.state.gov/p/nea/ci/c2404.htm
Same to the National Geographic Society ;
World Map :
http://mapmachine.nationalgeographic.com/mapmachine/viewandcustomize.html?task=getMap&themeId=p2
Asia Map :
http://mapmachine.nationalgeographic.com/mapmachine/viewandcustomize.html?task=getMap&themeId=p71&size=s&topten=100,p100,p3,p4,p5,p501565,p501719,p70,p71,p93&iplace=&sext=-180.0,-90.0,180.0,90.0&iext=-180.0,-90.0,180.0,90.0
You can visit this page for some maps & documents and see even Arab scholars until 1960s used “Al-Khalij Al-Farsi” (Arabic name of the “Persian Gulf”);
http://www.persiangulfonline.org/maps.htm
“Arabian Gulf” in fact is the ancient name of the present-day “Red Sea” (located between Arabia and Africa).
Please imagine that all nations start to rename the historical and legal names of seas and oceans: African people try to change the name of Indian Ocean to African Ocean, American people rename Gulf of Mexico to Gulf of America or Pakistani people try to use Pakistani Sea instead of the Arabian Sea !….
Also please be aware that Persian (Iranian) people never tried to use “Gulf of Iran”/”Gulf of Persia” instead of “Gulf of Oman” and never tried to change the name of “Arabian Sea” into “Persian Sea”.
May I ask you to kindly use the proper term in that article?
Thanks so much for your attention.
Sincerely,
Pejman Akbarzadeh
Member of “ARTISTS WITHOUT FRONTIERS” (Tehran Chapter)
http://artistswithoutfrontiers.com/pakbarzadeh/index.html