Manama: Mones Al Mardi, the editor in chief of Al Bilad daily, is the new chairman of the Bahrain Journalists Association (BJA).
The elections of a new board for the associations are scheduled for Saturday, but Al Mardi was assured of the position after no other journalist signed up to challenge him by registration deadline.
He will succeed Eisa Al Shayji, the editor in chief of Al Ayam, who has been at the helm of the association for Bahrain-based journalists for a decade.
The full board will be known on Saturday when the BJA holds its assembly to review reports and elect the nine members among the ten candidates who include, for the first time, six women. The outgoing board had three women journalists.
The BJA was scheduled to hold its biennial elections next year, but brought the date forward after three board members left.
"The elections will be an opportunity to reunify the association following the fissures that appeared during the period of the unrest that hit Bahrain last year," Al Shaiji said as he urged journalists to take part in the assembly and cast their ballots.
The BJA, founded in 2001, was among the first journalists' association in the Gulf and won recognition by the Brussels-based International Federation of Journalists (IFJ). It helped organize several workshops with media partners in the Arab world, Europe and the US in Bahrain where no dedicated school for journalism exists.
However, the association waded into controversy in the early weeks over allowing editors in chief to join the board and non-Bahraini journalists to vote in the general elections. The issue was eventually settled.
