Draft law to end jail terms for press offences
TDT | Manama
Email : editor@newsofbahrain.com
A draft to abolish prison for press offences and regulate electronic media goes to the Shura Council today, with approval in principle recommended.
The text would remove jail terms from all punitive clauses in the press law and replace them with fines.
It would also set rules for creating, running and managing professional electronic news and content sites on the Internet.
The Services Committee says the draft fits the Constitution, which sets freedom of opinion and expression as a guaranteed right.
The proposal is framed as a practical way to give effect to that framework. By ending imprisonment, it seeks to protect freedom while keeping publishers and editors responsible for what is put out.
It also aims to keep penalties in step with the act.
Electronic media would be regulated in a way suited to its pace.
Current rules place duties that do not match the medium. The draft sets a specific and more flexible scheme that keeps up with change.
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