Bahrain - The Media Response.

After following the tweets from #bahrain yesterday I was interested to see the response of the main stream Western media today.

And the result is – Dah DAAAA – a rewriting of official Bahraini Government Press releases and conferences.

The BBC reports;

Washington has urged Bahrain to show restraint in dealing with protesters and called for meaningful reform in the small Gulf state kingdom. Security forces cleared hundreds of demonstrators from a square in the capital Manama on Thursday, leaving four people dead and hundreds injured.

Prayers and funerals are due to take place in the city on Friday. A pro-government demonstration is also expected to be held, just hours after Bahrain banned public gatherings.

Tanks prowled the streets of Manama on Thursday as the military was ordered to tighten its grip. Soldiers would take every measure necessary to preserve security, the interior ministry said.

The Australian ABC Online included in its report;

But Bahrain’s government has defended yesterday’s security crackdown on anti-government protesters, which left at least three people dead. The country’s finance minister, Sheikh Mohammed Al Khalifa, says the police were acting in self defence. “They went in without any intention to harm anybody, just to remove the people that were occupying the roundabout and blocking traffic,” he said. “But some of those people came back and forth, and we have up to 70 police officers that have been hurt because of the original attempt to remove those people peacefully.”

This is despite the widely tweeted video showing the un-announced tear-gas, rubber bullet and sound bomb attack by the Govt forces on one camp of sleeping protesters.

Miguel Martinez from American ABC found out just how determined the Police were.

Yet Al Jazeera had no coverage available, a fact which was not unnoticed by Bahrain tweeters.

alshaikh3 mohamed alshaikh  

by Mustmhd7

Shame on #aljazeera as there is nothing happining in #bahrain #feb14

Just a quick note on the use of # hashtags. This is the way Twitter keeps track of conversations.

Interesting tweets began to appear.

carlesdijous Carles Dijous (AA)  

by Mustmhd7

Tweet > “Several Bahraini officers are being prosecuted for refusing to take part in violence against peaceful protesters”.

BahrainRights Bahrain Human Rights  

by Mustmhd7

“@NickKristof: 1 #Bahrain ambulance driver told me #Saudi army officer held gun to his head, said wld kill him if helped injured.”

FatiAmeer Fatima Alarab  

by Mustmhd7

again 4 those who say that the protesters started the attack, http://bit.ly/f5CrMR #bahrain

Then the chilling tweet I had feared.

BahrainRights Bahrain Human Rights  

by Mustmhd7

“2 people in Salmaniya hospital in crit conditon & army used refridgerated truck to take more dead bodies away, dr told al-Jazeera #bahrain”

Almakna Mohamed  

by Dr_Murtadha

Am still n shock, never thought a massacre will take place n #Bahrain It’s sad too sad Responsible parties will have to pay #Feb14

angryarabiya angry arabiya  

@

@YaAbalFazl Ppl talkin bout journalist seein gov refregirator trucks goin 2 saudi, and many missin protesters. Very disturbing thought. #bah(rain)

angryarabiya angry arabiya

Ran in2 activist who was @ lulu under attack. very shaken, can barely speak. Said they beat up children, u can’t imagine how horrible it was

None of this was reported by the mainstream media in its early reports. Hopefully there will be more accurate reporting soon.

The New York Times had some inside running.

Nick Kristoff, New York Times columnist, two-time Pulitzer Prize winner, tweets “As a reporter, some things just break your heart. Like watching the govt of moderate, tolerant #Bahrain kill its people.” In another message Nick offers “My video from the #Bahrain hospital: http://nyti.ms/eLXzxK ” Yet another tweet; “#Bahrain royal family has started a campaign to have me fired for my reports from here.

What is more worrying is that I am receiving no tweets from inside Bahrain at the moment. There a lot to tweets with the bahrain hashtag but they all seem to be from outside the country. The people I followed yesterday have all gone ominously quiet. I hope it is because of Friday Prayers or an internet block.

A Final Thought

iAmmar Ammar Alabdulmohsin

The world has split into protesters, oppressors, & bystanders.

#bahrain #feb17 #lulu