Bahrain Watch is a "research and advocacy organisation" devoted to issues related to
Bahrain
Bahrain, officially the Kingdom of Bahrain, is an island country in West Asia. Situated on the Persian Gulf, it comprises a small archipelago of 50 natural islands and an additional 33 artificial islands, centered on Bahrain Island, which mak ...
. The group was founded in 2011 by several people, including journalist
Ala'a Shehabi Ala'a Shehabi, sometimes referred to as Ala'a al-Shehabi (born 1980/1981), is a British-born Bahraini journalist and democracy-rights activist.
Early life and education
Shehabi was raised in London by her father, political exile Saeed al-Shehab ...
.
Activism
One of the group's subdivisions, PR Watch, works to identify articles commissioned by the Bahraini government in Western newspapers.
The group estimates the government spent US$50 million on such commissioned pieces between 2011 and 2014.
In 2012, Bahrain Watch reported that Bahraini police were using unmarked tear gas canisters to obscure which countries and companies they were sourced from.
In 2013, the group led a campaign to block a shipment of 1.6 million tear gas canisters from
South Korea
South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the southern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders North Korea along the Korean Demilitarized Zone, with the Yellow Sea to the west and t ...
to
Bahrain's Interior Ministry.
Although their complaint was rejected on the grounds that the company producing the tear gas canisters was not breaking any laws, the government of South Korea did agree to suspend exports of the canisters to Bahrain due to the country's unstable political situation.
In 2014, the group filed a complaint in the UK against
Gamma International
Gamma Group is an Anglo-German technology company that sells surveillance software to governments and police forces around the world. The company has been strongly criticised by human rights organisations for selling its FinFisher software to ...
for allegedly providing spyware to the Bahraini government. Bahrain Watch itself has faced multiple attempted hacking attacks.
In 2015, the group released a report on a series of digital attacks made against Bahraini activists living abroad, although they were not able to identify the perpetrator.
In July 2016, Bahrain Watch released a report on the government's suppression of the internet in
Diraz
Diraz (, also spelled Duraz) is the biggest and most populated village on the northwest coast of Bahrain. It lies to the east of Budaiya, west of Barbar, Bahrain, Barbar and north of Bani Jamra. Two Dilmun era archaeological sites, namely Diraz Te ...
following protests there.
In 2016, the organization launched a website titled #200MoreStories in response to the British Council's #200Stories, which aimed to celebrate "200 years of relations between the UK and Bahrain". Bahrain Watch started their campaign to draw attention to more critical and nuanced perspectives on the two countries' relationship.
The organization has leaked documents relating to donations or funding given by the Bahraini government to other groups or organizations. In 2017, the group launched the Bahrain Budget Transparency Project, an online repository of data about the budgets of the Bahraini government.
In 2018, the group reported that the Bahraini government was using
spyware
Spyware (a portmanteau for spying software) is any malware that aims to gather information about a person or organization and send it to another entity in a way that harms the user by violating their privacy, endangering their device's securit ...
to find information about and track activists on social media.
Members
Among the group's members is cyber-activist
Ali Abdulemam.
Bahrain Watch 'About Us' page
, accessed 13 May 2014
References
External links
*
Human rights organisations based in Bahrain
Organizations established in 2011
2011 establishments in Bahrain
{{bahrain-stub