Bahrain bans Blackberry chat groups
In a statement carried by the Bahrain News Agency (BANA), Abdullah Yateem, assistant undersecretary for press and publication at the Ministry of Culture and Information, attributed the decision to the “chaos and confusion” of unauthorized news postings.
“In view of the impact that such news create among the public by causing chaos and confusion, especially since the source is individuals and agencies which have failed to obtain official permission by the ministry prior to engaging in such activities, we have summoned those individuals and will be taking legal action against the offenders who broke the regulations and laws,” Yateem said.
Individuals with such Blackberry phones, which have been growing steadily in popularity in recent months, had been using the groups to post information about traffic police speed traps, breaking news they witnessed and political news, as well as engaging in business networking.
At least one local newspaper and a political society are using the Blackberry service to broadcast news for free.
“Breaking News,” which is run by a journalist and only broadcasts official news, daily newspaper headlines and breaking news – with more than 12,000 subscribers – was suspended despite the fact that the reports were mostly repostings from officially recognized news sources.
The move comes less than a month after Bahrain’s third mobile operator launched its service with a focus on delivering better mobile data connections and four months after its e-government service was ranked first among Gulf states, third among Asian countries and 13th globally by the binaural UN e-Government Development Index 2010.
The Ministry of Culture and Information already blocks and censors thousands of websites for sexual and political content.
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