By Brian Whitaker
"....
On Wednesday the Gulf Daily News followed this up by claiming
that Bahrain had "won superpower backing against 'unfair' comments" by Pillay.
It said America's ambassador to the UN Human Rights Council, Eileen Donahoe, had
"agreed" that Pillay's remarks did not reflect reality.
The story did not elaborate on what the ambassador had
supposedly said or indicate in what ways she thought Pillay's remarks had failed
to "reflect reality", but it was duly regurgitated by various other publications
and websites, including Trade Arabia and the
British-based Middle
East Association.
There's no evidence to suggest the Gulf Daily News story might
be true and, considering that the US had just put its name to the 47-country
"statement of concern" about Bahrain, there's every reason to suppose the story
was false. A note subsequently issued by the American mission to the UN in
Geneva complained of "gross
factual inaccuracies" in the story.
This might be viewed simply as a case of bad reporting but
it's not a one-off. Bahrain and its media have a history of making false claims
about international support.
Last November, for example, the official Bahrain News Agency
twisted
a statement from Alistair Burt, Britain's Foreign Office minister with
responsibility for the Middle East, to make it appear that he was totally
supportive of the Bahraini government.
On other occasions, Bahraini media have:
-
Misrepresented a statement from Amnesty International about the death of a 14-year-old protester.
-
Falsely claimed that UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon had declared support for the kingdom's "security" measures (i.e. repression).
-
Invented a statement from Navi Pillay about unrest in Bahrain which the official news agency later admitted to be false.
-
Misreported a critical statement from William Hague, the British foreign secretary, to make it appear that he was praising Bahrain's government. "
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