Thursday, November 18, 2004
Free Speech Campaign
Once a government is committed to the principle of silencing the voice of
opposition, it has only one way to go, and that is down the path of increasingly
repressive measures, until it becomes a source of terror to all its citizens and
creates a country where everyone lives in fear: Harry S. Truman
Yellow, blue, purple, strippy, spotty, hell you can wear every single colour of the rainbow, but will it make a difference?
لقد أسمعت لو ناديت حيا ولكن لاحياة لمن تنادي
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I guess people are too scared to wear a ribbon in the first place...so the campaign is doomed from the start !?!
Salaams Bahrania, should I worry about what I say? How far does this censorship go? I've heard conflicting things about the level of censorship and human rights. I'm not sure anymore what to expect. I hope they don't go so far as to censor the bloggers.
Thanks for creating such an informative blog.
I wouldn't recommend wearing a rainbow coloured ribbon...
Ethnic: you'll be ok as long as you keep your opinions perfectly aligned with the regime or you're good at using a big bucket of diplomacy with what you say. If so, you may even be highly rewarded and elevated to superstar status.
Appearances can be misleading, the press is more free than before, but the government still holds the keys to your destiny, with archaic press laws. In addition, if you do have any form of dissident views, consider yourself blacklisted and lucky enough to have a new file opened with your name in the Ministry of Interior. There is a clear red-line with what is ok and what isnt.
However, I dont want to be completely negative. As long as you be careful and steer away from politics you should be fine!! In fact, apart from the politics, and with a bit of money, Bahrain is one of the best places to be!
BuLahab, why wat does a rainbow coloured ribbon stand for?
here you go:
http://www.swade.net/gallery/symbols.html
why not..we can stick that to our list of demands too :)
your first to enrol BuLahab...your ribbon is in the post :)
and which one is that?
I just came over from Chanad's Blog after reading this (http://chanadbahraini.blogspot.com/2004/11/protest-tomorrow.html#c110070486721835149) & now i see that the ribbon of pride has been mentioned on this blog too :D... lol.. i don't see any harm in wearing it.... but pls do fill me on any rainbow-colored protests that are gonna' take place in Bahrain, i'd love to join in ;)... Bahraniat? Chanad? Anyone care to join? :D
Thanks, Bahrainiat. I need to go over the legal system again. I had gathered the censorship of media like books and public opinion was pretty loose.
Maybe I should leave all my ribbons and stickers here.
http://www.apfw.org/data/annualconference/2004/english/papers/Bahrain04MahaEn.pdf
A nice summary of the situation which I dont need to repeat. Im sure another 10 pages can be added since this paper was written in May 2004.
Nip it in the bud!