Bahrain Mirror: Reporters Without Borders (RSF) and TV5-Monde will award their 2017 Press Freedom Prize on 7 November. 18 nominees are competing in 3 categories.

This independent Al-Wasat newspaper that was shut down by the authorities in June 5 is among the 18 nominees and it is nominated for the media category.

The ceremony will be held as part of the World Forum for Democracy in Strasbourg.

The nominees were chosen by RSF's staff on the basis of their professionalism, independence and commitment to media freedom.

The organization said that this independent Arabic-language newspaper (Al-Wasat) was the last bastion of free speech in the Kingdom of Bahrain, where outspoken journalists and commentators are persecuted and risk long jail sentences on trumped-up charges.

After being in the regime's sights for years, Al-Wasat has been closed arbitrarily since June 5 for "repeated law-breaking." It is accused of inciting divisions and trying to undermine Bahrain's international relations in an article about the recent protests in Morocco. The newspaper has been shut down several times since its creation in 2002, but was more recently forced to fire all of its staff (more than 160 employees), which has endangered its chances of survival.

The e-newspaper "Mada Masr", the Cambodia Daily, Radio Jupiter from Madagascar, the weekly Mexican Río Doce, the Salvadoran Factum and online platform Medyascope are competing Al-Wasat on the RSF prize.

It is to mention that the organization also nominated the Emirati activist and blogger Ahmed Mansoor for citizen-journalists category. Mansoor has been arrested several times by the Emirati authorities for his media and political activism. RSF said that he is one of the few sources of independent reporting about human rights and civil liberties in the UAE. He was sentenced to prison term on charges of posting false information on social networks, endangering national unity, and damaging the UAE's reputation

Arabic Version