{"id":10299,"date":"2012-05-30T14:47:12","date_gmt":"2012-05-30T21:47:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/?p=10299"},"modified":"2012-05-30T14:47:12","modified_gmt":"2012-05-30T21:47:12","slug":"bahrain-intensifies-media-repression-to-blackout-arabsat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/?p=10299","title":{"rendered":"Bahrain intensifies media repression &#8211; to blackout ArabSat"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Bahrain to quit Arabsat to protest Iran channels<\/strong><br \/>\n26 May, 2012 &#8211; AFP<\/p>\n<p>DUBAI, May 26, 2012 (AFP) &#8211; Bahrain will stop broadcasting its channels on satellite operator Arabsat to protest an Iran-led &#8220;hostile&#8221; media campaign, the state news agency BNA reported on Saturday.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The Information Affairs Authority (IAA) decided to stop broadcasting Bahrain bouquet on Arabsat, starting from June 1,&#8221; BNA said quoting an English language statement.<\/p>\n<p>IAA criticised Arabsat for failing to heed repeated requests &#8220;to take an official measure&#8221; against Iranian channels which also broadcast on Arabsat.<\/p>\n<p>These channels, it said, were waging a &#8220;hostile media campaign&#8221; against Bahrain and Saudi Arabia &#8220;to incite sectarianism and shake security and stability,&#8221; in the Sunni-ruled kingdoms.<\/p>\n<p>The IAA said it had &#8220;repeatedly requested&#8221; Arabsat to take measures against Iranian channels since February 2011, when a month-long Shiite-led uprising began in Bahrain against the regime.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The executive body of Arabsat did not respond to these requests,&#8221; said the statement.<\/p>\n<p>In 2009, Saudi-based Arabsat and another Arab satellite operator, Nilesat, briefly stopped broadcasting Arabic-language Iranian channel Al-Alam.<\/p>\n<p>Tensions have escalated between Shiite Iran and its Arab neighbours in the Gulf since a Saudi-led Gulf force rolled into Bahrain in March 2011 to boost the kingdom&#8217;s security forces, which then crushed a month-old uprising against the regime.<\/p>\n<p>Iran has repeatedly voiced support for the protests in Bahrain and strongly condemned the deployment of the Saudi-led forces.<\/p>\n<p>Al-Alam and Lebanon&#8217;s Hezbollah&#8217;s Al-Manar channel have provided full coverage of the protests dominated by their Shiite co-religionists.  <a href=\"http:\/\/www.zawya.com\/story\/Bahrain_to_quit_Arabsat_to_protest_Iran_channels-ANA20120526T115543ZBPC89\/\" target=\"_blank\">&#8230;source<\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"igit_tsb_button\" style=\"float: left; margin-right: 10px;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/share?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.crookedbough.com%2F%3Fp%3D10299&amp;text=Bahrain+intensifies+media+repression+-+to+blackout+ArabSat&amp;count=horizontal&amp;via=\" style=\"\" class=\"twitter-share-button\">Tweet<\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Bahrain to quit Arabsat to protest Iran channels 26 May, 2012 &#8211; AFP DUBAI, May 26, 2012 (AFP) &#8211; Bahrain will stop broadcasting its channels on satellite operator Arabsat to protest an Iran-led &#8220;hostile&#8221; media campaign, the state news agency BNA reported on Saturday. &#8220;The Information Affairs Authority (IAA) decided to stop broadcasting Bahrain bouquet <a href=\"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/?p=10299#more-'\" class=\"more-link\">more \u00bb<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[247],"tags":[2541],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10299"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/27"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10299"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10299\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10301,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10299\/revisions\/10301"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10299"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10299"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10299"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}