Since November 13, 2009, several media in Bahrain have been publishing slandering accusations against the BCHR, which is also an FIDH member organisation and its president, Nabeel Rajab, also Chairperson of the Coordination of Action Research on AIDS and Mobility (CARAM Asia). This slandering media campaign has begun two days after the release by BCHR of a report in which the organisation documented the alleged setting up of state-controlled non-governmental organisations in Bahrain.
On November 13, 2009, several newspapers including Akhbar Al-Khaleej (AAK) and Gulf Daily News, electronic forums like the kingdomofbahrain.org and one TV programme named The Final Word published fabricated accusations pointing to links between Mr. Nabeel Rajab and the Iranian authorities. In particular, in the front page of the 13 November issue, AAK published two articles slandering Mr. Nabeel Rajab. The first article entitled "With my money and not the soft talk" in which the editor alleged that: "In the recent election carried out at Caram Asia, Nabeel Rajab won the membership of the board due to the financial and political support offered by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards and Intelligence in Iranian Embassy in Malaysia". The AAK further stated that: "Nabeel won the highest number of votes from the organizations which received Iranian money from him".
In another article also published in the front page on the same issue, entitled "For refusing indicting Iran, Nabeel Rajab was ejected from a European Conference", the AAK editor alleged that: "The Bahrain Kingdom Forum published a picture distributed by news agencies showing the expulsion of Nabeel Rajab, president of BCHR, in a European conference [the day before] because he refused to condemn Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, executions to death, and the latest killings of Iranian human rights activists". Allegations spelled out in this last article were also published the same day on the front page of the Gulf Daily News (GDN) under the title "Activist expelled from forum".
On November 18 and 19, 2009, the newspaper El Watan attacked the BCHR and its president stating that they were providing false information on Bahrain to the foreign community.
FIDH and BHRS also regret that Mr. Nabeel Rajab and his wife continue to face acts of harassment and intimidation through anonymous telephone calls, SMS, e-mails and letters. Though Mr. Rajab filed several complaints before the public prosecutor no serious investigation has been carried out so far1.
FIDH and BHRS fear that BCHR and its president have been targeted to deter them from pursuing their legitimate human rights activities and urge the competent Bahraini authorities to order an immediate, thorough, effective, impartial and independent investigation into the slandering campaign and the acts of harassment against Mr. Nabeel Rajab and his relatives, in line with the Declaration on Human Rights Defenders adopted by the UN General Assembly on December 9, 1998, which provides that "the State shall take all necessary measures to ensure the protection by the competent authorities of everyone, individually or in association with others, against any violence, threats, retaliation, de facto or de jure adverse discrimination, pressure or any other arbitrary action as a consequence of his or her legitimate exercise of the rights referred to in the present Declaration".
Both organisations further call upon the authorities to guarantee, in all circumstances, the physical and psychological integrity of all activists, including human rights defenders, and to ensure in all circumstances respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms in accordance with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights as well as international human rights instruments ratified by Bahrain.