Google Earth in Bahrain

I got an e-mail from the president of the Bahrain Youth Human Rights Association (BYHRA) about the banning of Google Earth in Bahrain, which has been forwarded to the Google management team:

Rough translation:

To Dr. Eric Schmidt, Chairman of the Executive Committee and Chief Executive Officer of Google:

The Ministry of Information of the Kingdom of Bahrain is responsible for blocking many of the political websites which discuss Bahrain’s issues freely, and these websties (some of which have more than 10000 members involved) are arenas for dialogue on the issues and conditions of Bahrain.

The Ministry of Information has taken yet another step in restricting the electronic press freedoms in Bahrain, and they provided no reason whatsoever to back their decision to block the Google Earth service from Bahraini citizens.

We call upon you to take appropriate action to stop this trend, especially seeing as Google Earth is a program that we all benefit from. Researchers and students at Universities and schools, and even the media, depend on this program for some of their work. And banning us from using this is a clear violation of human rights.

We’ll support whatever you do in order to restore this service to citizens in Bahrain, whether be it through legal or diplomatic means. We hereby ask you to address Bahrain’s Ministry of Information and urging them to stop taking our rights from participating in sites and programs that offer their services free of charge to their subscribers, for the sake of the free flow of information in Bahrain.

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