Editors of Bahrain newspaper fired

(CNN) — Three top editors of Al-Wasat, a Bahraini newspaper critical of the government’s crackdown on the protest movement in that country, have been fired, according to state-run media reports.

Bahrain News Agency reported Sunday that the state Information Affairs Authority had “instigated legal proceedings” against the daily newspaper Al-Wasat following the firings of editor-in-chief Mansour Al-Jamri, managing editor Walid Nouwaihidh and local news department head Aqeel Mirza.

Al-Jamri is a CNN contributor.

“The flagrant press irregularities committed by Bahrain daily Al-Wasat will be referred to the International Federation of Journalists and the Arab Journalists Union,” BNA reported Sunday.

The news agency cited a statement from the pro-government Bahrain Journalists Association “expressing shock over Al-Wasat(‘s) deliberate forgery in a blatant and clear drive to subvert Bahrain’s security and stability, escalate the crisis and deepen the polarization gripping the Kingdom.”

The accusations against Al-Wasat include “deliberate news fabrication and falsification during the recent unrest which gripped the Kingdom of Bahrain,” BNA reported, without stating what specific infractions had been committed by the newspaper.

According to BNA, however, Al-Jamri “assumed his responsibility for the irregularities” during a newspaper board meeting.

“Dr. Al-Jamri admitted that he had authorized the news to be published, without verifying their sources or credibility,” BNA stated, quoting Al-Wasat Chairman Farooq Almoayyed. The chairman also named Abidli A-Abidli as Al-Wasat’s new editor-in-chief.

Al-Jamri, however, told CNN Sunday “there has been a smear campaign going on against us.”

“Yesterday I got a call from the Information Affairs Authority. They telephoned me and said, ‘Tomorrow you won’t be publishing,'” Al-Jamri said. “Al-Wasat wasn’t even allowed to defend itself while this decision was being made.”

BNA reported that Al-Wasat could resume publishing as early as Monday, pending approval of the government’s Information Affairs Authority.

The protests in Bahrain are part of a wave that has spread through North Africa and the Middle East. To quell the unrest, the Bahraini government called in troops from member states of the Gulf Cooperation Council.

Human Rights Watch has accused the government of targeting wounded anti-government protesters and sometimes denying them crucial medical care. Security forces, according to the organization, stormed Salmaniya Medical Complex on March 16 and have since used it as the place to identify people who are part of the protests.

The arrests and government crackdown is part of an effort to stop thousands of people who have been demonstrating in Bahrain since last month.

Many have been arrested, with prominent blogger Mahmood al-Yousif among the most recent.

Yousif, who has been called the “Blogfather” because of his influential anti-sectarianism blog, was arrested last week, his wife told CNN.

The Bahrain Center for Human Rights reported Sunday that more than 400 people have been jailed or have gone missing since the government of Bahrain imposed a state of “national safety.”

Those missing or currently detained include teachers, bloggers, political activists doctors, artists, two sheikhs and an ambulance driver, according to the Bahrain Center for Human Rights. The list also includes 12-year-old Ahmed Ali Thamer Abbas Yahya, the organization reported on its website Sunday.

Attached to the Bahrain Center’s statement is a spreadsheet listing the names of 379 missing or detained people, all of them male. One of them, Nasser Ali-Jishi, is listed as having been “of contempt run over and killed by police.”

Of the 85 names with ages listed, all but seven are under the age of 40, and 22 are listed as teenagers, according to the spreadsheet.

CNN’s Mohammed Jamjoom contributed to this report