Bahrain Mirror: The Foreign Affairs, Defense and National Security Committee in the Bahraini Parliament agreed on a bill adding a new article (9 bis) to law 60/2014 on cybercrimes (prepared on the basis of the proposal of a law as amended by the Shura Council) with an amendment.

The bill consists of two articles. The first article stating adding a new one (9 bis) stipulating that: imprisonment and a fine of 1,000BD at minimum and 50,000BD at maximum, or one of these penalties, shall be imposed on anyone who commits or incites committing one of the following acts:

-  Damaging the reputation of people through the misuse of social media outlets

-  Defaming others and causing damage to them through the use of social media outlets

The second article was executive.

The bill aims at putting an end to crimes of defamation, damaging of reputation and prejudicing private life of people through social media outlets, as the penalties imposed for such crimes are not sufficient to deter the perpetrators.

The committee recommended amending the article in the following fashion:

Adding a new article (9 bis) to law 60/2014 on cybercrimes, which reads:

Imprisonment and a fine of 1,000BD at minimum and 50,000BD at maximum, or one of these penalties, shall be imposed on anyone who commits or incites defamation or damage of reputation of people through social media platforms.

Arabic Version