Al Wasat editors fined, spared prison terms
The editor-in-chief of Al Wasat, a Bahraini newspaper, was on Tuesday asked to pay a 1,000-dinar ($2,264) fine on charges of publishing false stories.
Along Mansoor Al Jamri, Walid Nouwehed, the managing editor, Aqeel Mirza, the head of local news and an Iraqi journalist, tried in absentia, will also to have pay 1,000 dinars each for their alleged role in the publication of the stories.
No prison terms were handed to any of the four defendants in the case that followed the publication of reports in the paper that according to the charges were fabricated news and concocted stories to harm public safety and national interests.
The defendants said that they have been targeted in a campaign to discredit the daily.
Al Jamri, who was reinstated by the board of the daily after handing in his resignation, has been the editor-in-chief of Al Wasat since it was launched in 2002.
Bahrain has five dailies in Arabic and two in English.
http://gulfnews.com/news/gulf/bahrain/al-wasat-editors-fined-spared-prison-terms-1.889901
