Bahrain committed to ban on BeIN Sports receivers

Manama, July 20 (BNA): The Ministry of Information Affairs announced that it is continuing to implement its June 13, 2017 decision to suspend the importation of the beIN Sports channels of the Qatar-based Al Jazeera network and to suspend the sale and renewal of its subscriptions. The ministry said in a statement that it recently stepped up its inspection campaigns on shops that sell receivers and dealt with them in accordance with the laws and regulations in force in Bahrain. The campaigns targeted both the receivers of the Qatar-based Al Jazeera network and the encoded receivers that broadcast illegally. The beIN Sports are blatantly involved in suspicious cases linked to supporting terrorism and extremist groups and to promoting the discourse of sedition, hatred and extremism in the region, the ministry said. The channels were also found, mainly during the broadcasting of FIFA World Cup matches, to be involved in campaigns of political distortion against several Arab countries and in abuses to discredit them. The ministry said that it condemned such abuses that reflected a poor mind-set within the channels and the adoption of a confused policy and terrible media standards that cannot be missed by any observer. “We reiterate our consistent position of denouncing the policy adopted by the beIN Sports channels that intrudes politics into sports in order to achieve personal gains that clash with the universal goals of sport,” the ministry said. The ministry renewed its call to review the legal position of the beIN Sports channels in each country, especially after the offensive campaigns they adopted to harm the Arab countries and peoples.