Bahrain Mirror: 46 Non-Governmental Organizations around the world called for the immediate release of Bahraini journalist Faisal Hayyat, who has been under the authorities' arrest for more than a month over a "tweet" on his "Twitter" account. 

The organizations who signed the letter addressed to Bahrain's King Hamad stated, "Faisal has been targeted as part of a silencing campaign against critical voices of the government. Recently, the Bahraini government has brought further criminal charges against human rights defender Nabeel Rajab for an open letter published in the New York Times, and against political opposition leader Ebrahim Sharif for an interview he gave with the Associated Press. Furthermore, the opposition politician Fedhel Abbas received three years in prison for tweets criticizing the war in Yemen."

The NGO joint statement demanded the Bahraini government to "immediately and unconditionally release Faisal Hayyat, Nabeel Rajab, and all internet users arrested and imprisoned for merely exercising their right to freedom of expression"

Furthermore, they called on the government to "abide by international human rights standards, including the ICCPR and UDHR, by upholding the right to freedom of expression without any restrictions."

Arabic Version