Gulf | Bahrain
Cases against Bahrain editors shelved till ruling on new press law
All court cases against editors-in-chief will be shelved until the Constitutional Court rules on the constitutionality of an article in the controversial press law, the public prosecutor has said.
- By Habib Toumi, Bahrain bureau chief
- Published: 17:13 June 2, 2008
Manama: All court cases against editors-in-chief will be shelved until the Constitutional Court rules on the constitutionality of an article in the controversial press law, the public prosecutor has said.
Article 74 of the 2002 Press Law stipulates that editors in chief are held legally responsible, alongside journalists and columnists, for the articles and columns that are published in their newspapers.
However, the article has been challenged as "unconstitutional" by Mohammed Al Banki, the editor in chief of Al Watan, currently at the centre of a court case brought against him and columnist Hisham Al Zayani by local actress Zainab Al Askari for the use of "slur and smear" adjectives that "questioned her honour and integrity".
"As we wait for the ruling on the constitutionality of the article, all cases against editors in chief should be postponed on the grounds that if the Constitutional Court decides that the article is unconstitutional, the criminal court will not take legal action against an editor-in-chief," Public Prosecutor Ali Al Buainain said on Sunday in his directive to the prosecutors.
The court reviewing the case of Al Askari Versus Al Banki and Al Zayani had stopped its proceedings until the Constitutional Court, approached by Al Banki, rules on Article 74.
The postponement of all cases will include Eisa Al Shaiji, Al Ayam's editor in chief, who is being sued by Egyptian-born preacher Wajdi Ghunaim for a "defamatory" column by the newspaper's lead columnist Saeed Al Hamad.
The case, scheduled for June 30, is being monitored by the Brussels-based International Federation of Journalists amid reports that Aidan White, the secretary-general, would attend the trial in Manama.
Information Minister Jehad Bu Kamal on May 5 said that the government, under a drive to boost media freedom, had scrapped prison terms for journalists and abolished legal action against editors in chief in a comprehensive amendment to the 2002 Press Law.
However, the changes will have to be approved by the Islamists'-dominated parliament before they become effective.
However, several MPs, wary of liberal writers and open criticism, have said that they would not endorse the changes that, they claimed, would give journalists an "undeserved privilege and distinguished status."
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