Freedom House issued its annual report on World Press Freedom, and Bahrain was among the “Not Free” countries, and one of the worst countries on the level of freedom. It also noted that Bahrain “has become one of the Middle East’s most repressive states.”

Deputy Secretary General of The National Democratic Action Society - Wa'ad, Mahmoud Hafez, said that “Wa’ad’s philosophy is based on reform and peace, and the open approach was not a diplomacy we practice or a tactic, but rather a strategic choice we openly do.”

The Director of NGO Support at the Bahraini Ministry of Labor and Social Development, Najwa Janahi, issued a circular prohibiting civil society organizations supervised by the Ministry, from accepting any offers from foreign embassies

Americans for Democracy & Human Rights in Bahrain and a number of human rights groups strongly condemned the judicial harassment of political activists, human rights defenders, and other civil society actors, attempting to attend international human rights mechanisms such as the UPR.

Bahraini and American human rights organizations strongly condemned the judicial harassment of human rights defenders, journalists, lawyers, and other members of civil society attempting to attend international human rights mechanisms such as the UPR, calling on the Government of Bahrain to immediately lift all restrictions on them.

A Bahraini court sentenced a defendant to 5 years in prison over putting a hoax bomb in Isa Town and acquitted him of attempting to blast a real bomb and ordered the confiscation of seized items.

Front Line Defenders condemned this recent wave “of harassment against human rights defenders in Bahrain” considering it to “be solely motivated by their peaceful and legitimate activities in the defence of human rights”. It urged the authorities “to cease all forms of harassment against all human rights defenders in Bahrain” and “immediately and unconditionally remove the travel bans imposed against human rights defenders facing travel restrictions.”

The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) stressed that the religious freedom for the majority-Shi’a community deteriorated, stating that there was a sharp increase in the number of interrogations, arrests, convictions, and arbitrary detentions of Shi’a Muslim clerics, in particular most senior Shi’a cleric in Bahrain, Sheikh Isa Qassim, whose citizenship was arbitrarily stripped by authorities in June.

Bahraini scholar and human rights activist Khalil Al-Halwachi allegedly jailed in connection with the Arab Spring protests is to appeal his 10-year prison term. Al-Halwachi claims he has been targeted for his peaceful political activism around the time of the Arab Spring uprisings and was tortured while he was held in custody in 2011.

Bahraini Interior Minister Rashid bin Abdulla Al Khalifa said in a joint meeting held with the GCC states in Riyadh on Thursday (April 27, 2017) that his country faces persistent threats coming from the Iranian and Iraqi territories.

Activists on Twitter said that the Bahraini authorities arrested Shiite cleric and his wife at the dawn today from his house in Karbabad, noting that reasons behind the arrest are unknown.

President Donald Trump complained on Thursday that U.S. ally Saudi Arabia was not treating the United States fairly and Washington was losing a “tremendous amount of money” defending the kingdom.

A prominent Bahraini activist jailed for life for his role in anti-regime protests has been on hunger strike for two weeks to protest the treatment of prisoners, campaigners said Thursday.

Bahraini scholar and preacher of Imam al-Sadiq Mosque in Manama, Sayed Abdullah Al Ghuraifi believed that “the case of Ayatollah Sheikh Isa Qassim put the country in front of a very difficult turn.”

The Khiam Rehabilitation Center for Victims of Torture (KRC) said that “the Bahraini government continues its arbitrary measures against human rights defenders right before the period review of the official national report before the Human Rights Council on May 1.”

Human rights activist told the Al-Wasat local newspaper that 37 human rights activist were banned from traveling and that 25 were summoned for interrogation at the public prosecution (from the onset of the week until Wednesday, April 26, 2017).

The Al-Wasat local newspaper published a summary of the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) report which placed Bahrain on its Tier 2 rank on terms of religious freedoms. Bahrain was covered in the Other Countries Monitored section of the 2017 Annual Report, as a consequence of deteriorating conditions of religious freedoms.

A number of medics complained that the Ministry of Health has not yet given them their dues in return to the work they did during the Formula 1 Race in 2016 and 2017.

The president of Civil Service Bureau (CSB), Mr. Ahmed Al Zayed explained that any scholarships, training courses, and field visits presented by foreign embassies and missions in Bahrain to employees subject to civil service law, should be through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Leading Bahraini human rights campaigner Sheikh Maytham al-Salman warned that civilians could lose hope for “peaceful reconciliation” if the government refuses to halt its crackdown on dissent.