Bahrain is a country comprising several islands in the Persian Gulf. It is a hereditary constitutional monarchy; the official language is Arabic, and the state religion is Islam. As such, the shari’ah (Islamic legal code) is a principal source for legislation within the country. The nature, growth, and control of media in contemporary Bahrain can be understood through the Bahraini uprising of February 2011. Thus, this entry first discusses the Bahraini uprising and then examines the media and its use by the state and the citizenry.

The Bahraini Uprising

In February 2011, hundreds of thousands of Bahraini citizens took to the streets to call for the ouster of the ruling al-Khalifa family, which had ruled Bahrain since the 1780s. The date they chose—February 14—had great significance, as ...

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