Bahrain
Media

The predominant forms of media in Bahrain consists of weekly and daily newspapers, television, and radio.

Newspapers are widely available in multiple languages such as Arabic, English, Malayalam, etc. to support the varied population. Akhbar Al Khaleej (أخبار الخليج) and Al Ayam (الأيام) are examples of major Arabic newspapers published daily. Gulf Daily News and Daily Tribune publish daily newspapers in English. Gulf Madhyamam is a newspaper published in Malayalam.

The country's television network operates five networks, all of which are by the Information Affairs Authority. Radio, much like the television network, is mostly state-run and usually in Arabic. Radio Bahrain is a long-running English language radio station, and Your FM is a radio station serving the large expatriate population from the Indian subcontinent living in the country.

By June 2012, Bahrain had 961,000 internet users. The platform "provides a welcome free space for journalists, although one that is increasingly monitored", according to Reporters Without Borders. Rigorous filtering targets political, human rights, religious material and content deemed obscene. Bloggers and other netizens were among those detained during protests in 2011.

Bahraini journalists risk prosecution for offences that include "undermining" the government and religion. Self-censorship is widespread. Journalists were targeted by officials during anti-government protests in 2011. Three editors from the opposition daily Al-Wasat were sacked and later fined for publishing "false" news. Several foreign correspondents were expelled. An independent commission, set up to look into the unrest, found that state media coverage was at times inflammatory. It said opposition groups suffered from lack of access to mainstream media and recommended that the government "consider relaxing censorship". Assessments by Reporters sans frontières have consistently found Bahrain to be one of the most world's most restrictive regimes.
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