A reader/activist sent me this but she wishes to remain anonymous: "The Bahraini government campaign of
disinformation is now in full swing as you may have noticed a string of
pro-government opinion pieces in Western rightwing media outlets recently,
namely The Telegraph, The Times, and the WSJ promoting the narrative of 1) a
liberal progressive government countering Iranian subversion in Bahrain 2)
Opposition and protestors were violent and want an islamic state 3) a crackdown
was necessary for peace and stability. See [1][2][3]. The Saudi-backed regime
has dispatched several propaganda agents with the proud title of “Media
Attaches” to its embassies in Washington and London whose job is to improve it's
image after the damage caused by the regime's violent crackdown. So far, the
likes of Saqer Alkhalifa posted in Washington has signed contracts with PR
agencies such as Bell Pottinger, Qorvis and now Sentis
International for ‘reputation management’ services. Qorvis has signed a
$40,000+expenses monthly contract with the Bahraini government ()
and now with Sanitas International ()
with as yet an undisclosed amount, but Joe Trippi, along with his new colleagues
Christopher Harvin and Matt Lauer, probably don’t come cheap.
Almost immediately there was a noticeable improvement in the language of
the English press releases of the state’s main news agency. However, the regime
continue to ban foreign reporters in the country, and there is nearly no foreign
media in Bahrain covering events.
Of course on the domestic front, such PR agents
are unnecessary with near total state control of TV and printed press. It can
resort to distortion of fact or total fabrication as it so desires. Today for
example, Akhbar Alkhaleej ran with the front page headline, “Amnesty
International: factions in Bahrain exploit children for political gains” [4]
referring to the death of a 14 year old boy two days ago.
Amnesty has responded with this statement [5]
today:
"Incorrect reporting
of Amnesty International Statement in Bahraini newspapers, 2 September
2011
A number of Bahraini
newspapers published articles on 2 September containing incorrect information
about Amnesty International statements on Bahrain.
The articles
incorrectly state that Amnesty International called on Bahraini political groups
not to use children in protests for political gains or as human
shields.
Amnesty International
has never published such a statement and urges all these newspapers to
immediately withdraw this article from their websites and to publish corrections
in their printed editions."
This follows the Alayam frontpage headline
referring to statements made by Professor Cherif Bassiouni along the lines of
“Truth commission finds no crimes against humanity in Bahrain”.
BICI responded with this statement [6]:
"The
Chairperson of BICI wishes to clarify that, contrary to information relayed by
some news media outlets, he did not issue any statements on the outcome of the
Commission’s investigations. The Chairperson’s recent interview with a Bahraini
local newspaper was misrepresented. Professor Bassiouni’s comments were limited
to clarifying the differences between various categories of crimes and
violations of international law.”
This also follows the total fabrication of Navi
Pillay’s statements to the Minister for “Human Rights”, which led OHCHR to issue
the following statement:
“The Bahrain
News Agency, which was not present at the meeting, stated that the High
Commissioner had “recognized misinformation” about the Kingdom of Bahrain, and
quoted her as saying “Certain information which we received about the
developments in Bahrain are untrue.”
The High
Commissioner would like to stress that she made no such statement, and is
disturbed by this blatant distortion of her words. She will formally request the
Government officials who attended the meeting to issue a correction.” [7]
The campaign therefore seems to rest on several
channels of disinformation:
1) to lie outright in the domestic press by
grossly misquoting international representatives
2) to propogate the government narrative of a
“liberal progressive state subverting Iranian influence” in Western press
through the influence of PR agencies
3) to invent fictitious foreign characters,
such as “Liliane Khalil” to feed the government narrative and to fuel social
media “trolling” (this is subject of a future article/post)."
