Manama: Bahrain’s Information Affairs Authority (IAA) has rejected a report by media watchdog Reporters Without Borders, saying that the group was biased and had resorted to allegations that did not reflect the reality on the ground.

Reporters Without Borders last month issued a report ‘Bahrain urged to release 12 detained news providers’ that claimed that the “news and information providers are currently detained in Bahrain” and that “many of them are photographers or cameramen”.

The Paris-based organisation called “for their release and for the withdrawal of all charges or the quashing of the convictions of those already sentenced”.

However, the IAA on Tuesday evening said that the people mentioned in the report were not journalists and were not affiliated with any media company or outlet.

“The names mentioned in the report do not belong to press or media figures and do not exist in the staff records of any newspaper or media institution in the kingdom of Bahrain or among the members the Bahrain Journalists Association [BJA],” the IAA said in the statement carried by Bahrain News Agency (BNA).

“These names do not have any activity within the sector of the news and the media. Carrying a camera or a mobile phone or using the internet does not grant the holder or the user the status of journalist or media figure, and this in accordance with both the laws of the kingdom of Bahrain and all the norms and regulations prevailing in the media world.”

According to the statement, no journalist or media professional is detained in Bahrain.

“There are Bahraini independent human rights organisations that carry out investigations and receive reports and complaints about any violations of human rights. These include the Ombudsman, the National Institution for Human Rights, the National Commission for the Rights of Prisoners and Detainees, and the Special Investigation Unit tasked with cases of ill-treatment,” the IAA said.

It added that it “rejected and condemned the methods used by the media watchdog in drafting its reports, charging that it gathered information only from one side and ignored official data and the opinions of parliamentarians and civil society”.

“Such a practice is incompatible with the standards of professionalism and objectivity in drafting reports,” the IAA said.

Bahrain has 12 dailies and weeklies that are owned by private groups.