More Bahraini journalists vie for posts on association board

Manama: Next week's contest for Bahrain Journalists Association (BJA) board membership is shaping up into the most closely fought race since the association was formed about seven years ago.

The biennial elections have since 2000 been dominated by journalists from Al Ayam newspaper, while other publications either carried limited board memberships or boycotted the polls.

This year, three journalists from Al Wasat, a newspaper that has often been at loggerheads with the liberal Al Ayam, have announced that they would be vying for posts on the nine-member board.

"The decision of Al Wasat to take part in the elections is a healthy indication that they want to help improve the workings and social and professional contributions of the Bahrain Journalists Association," BJA chairman Eisa Al Shayji yesterday told Gulf News.

Consolidation

"When we have journalists from all newspapers going for board membership, we see it as a consolidation of the steps taken towards achieving journalistic excellence in a region dominated by formidable challenges to the core of the profession and to a greater freedom of expression," he said.

Al Shayji who took over, after first chairman Nabeel Al Hamar was appointed media advisor to the royal court, refused to say whether he would be seeking re-election.

"There are many things to take into consideration and I prefer to make my announcement later," he said. Candidates for the board membership have until January 17 to register their names for the elections on January 20 coinciding with the BJA's general assembly.

According to Al Shayji, the last two years witnessed significant gains for the Bahrain-based journalists.

"We hosted workshops in cooperation with the International Federation of Journalists, Internews, the Danish media union and lately the University of Missouri and MEPI. We had international expertise on covering elections and on upholding ethics and as we promoted a better culture of criticism locally, we also fiercely defended the rights of journalists," he said.

He added that the association was eagerly awaiting the official decision to permit it turn into a union. "It will herald a new era for more rights for journalists and for freedom of the press," he said.

He also hoped for an end to the dispute with journalists who wanted to form another association to protest some of the articles in the BJA constitution.

"The group basically wants to bar editors-in- chief from joining the association, but lawyers have said that only those who had the right to fire journalists should not be allowed to be members of the BJA. Sacking journalists in Bahrain forms part of duties of the newspaper chairperson and not the editor-in-chief," he said.