Internet & Online Safety - Bahrain

King Hamad ratified Press and Electronic Media Law No. 41 of 2025 on 30 October 2025 (amending Decree-Law 47/2002), bringing digital and electronic media under the Ministry of Information for the first time; existing digital platforms must regularise their status within six months.

Both Bahraini and foreign 'electronic media'—broadly defined as any activity providing news, information or programs to the public via digital means—must obtain Ministry of Information licenses; the Ministry can approve, deny or revoke without judicial oversight, with fines up to BD 5,000 for unlicensed activity.

Under TRA Decision 12/2016, all telecom operators must use a single unified technical system controlled by the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority, enabling authorities to block any website instantly across all networks; hundreds of news, opposition and human-rights sites have been blocked.

Penal Code Article 134 (up to 10 years for 'false news' damaging Bahrain's reputation) and Article 168 ('news causing panic'), together with the 2014 Cybercrime Law, are used to prosecute critical online expression, including social-media posts and insults to the king or state institutions.

Freedom House continues to rate Bahrain's internet 'Not Free'; the Bahrain Press Association documented roughly 2,037 freedom-of-expression violations since 2011, including about 37 cases against writers, activists and online users in the first half of 2025.

Bahrain has no comprehensive online-safety or platform-liability framework comparable to the EU DSA or UK Online Safety Act, and no specific statutory child age-verification mandate; control is exercised through content blocking, media licensing and penal sanctions rather than platform safety duties.