Bahrain rejects claim it is an 'enemy of the Internet'

DUBAI: Bahrain rejected on Wednesday a news report by an international media watchdog describing the Gulf Arab state as an "enemy of the Internet" after it crushed a pro-democracy uprising last year.

"Bahrain offers a perfect example of successful crackdowns, with an information blackout achieved through an impressive arsenal of repressive measures," the Paris-based Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said in a report published this week.

The report cited exclusion of the foreign media, harassment of human rights defenders, arrests of bloggers and Internet activists, prosecutions and defamation campaigns against free expression activists, and disruption of communications after mass protests first erupted in February 2011.