Bahrain Propaganda 101: The Regime Turns Britain's Criticism Into Praise

Claimed footage of police beating protester after funeral of a political prisoner, 3 October 2012

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Consider this press release from the Bahrain News Agency on a statement on Friday by Hague's deputy, Minister of State Alistair Burt:

"He hailed the formation of the ombudsman at the Interior Ministry to probe complaints and grievances and supervising inquiries, pointing out that the issues revealed in the BICI report would require a long time to address."

Now consider what Burt actually wrote:

"We are concerned by some of the recent decisions taken by the Bahraini Government, particularly on human rights, and we’re clear that there are areas where progress on implementation has been too slow and others where it is lacking."

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Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: After the Damascus Explosions

Claimed footage of Syrian security forces firing on men in Raqqa on Saturday

See also Bahrain Opinion: Letting Torturers Go Free?
Bahrain Exclusive: Reliving the Clashes and Rallies on the Anniversary of the Regime Crackdown
Saturday's Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: Explosions in Damascus

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1933 GMT: An evening demonstration in the Qosour section of Homs in Syria:

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Bahrain Propaganda 101: The Regime and Its US PR Firm Spin the Election

Last week we noted how the Bahraini regime and Qorvis, the US public relations company working for it, were trying to get the right "news" into international media. We now have the latest effort, a "story" summarising events of the last two days under the headline, "Strong Election Vote in Bahrain".

The article, put out through PRNewsWire and posted below, re-presents the talking points put out by Bahrain's information agency (see today's LiveBlog), but the style is markedly different from the Bahraini official statements and their display in pro-regime media, for example, in this story from Manama Press. That indicates that the "news" in this case may have been written by the PR agency.

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Bahrain Propaganda Special: Busted ---- UN Calls Out Regime for "Blatant Distortion"

Navi Pillay (2nd from left) with Bahrain officialsThe UN High Commissioner would like to stress that she made no such statement, and is disturbed by this blatant distortion of her words. She will formally request the Government officials who attended the meeting to issue a correction.

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