In the mid-2000s City University’s Journ­al­ism school — well me, to be pre­cise — had a num­ber of con­ver­sa­tions with the Bahraini author­it­ies about journ­al­ism edu­ca­tion, in the con­text of a more open and robust polit­ical cul­ture. The con­ver­sa­tions began with an approach by a junior mem­ber of the rul­ing fam­ily, a former aca­demic of lib­eral inclin­a­tion who wanted to do some­thing to sup­port change.

As a journ­al­ist with CBS News, I was depor­ted from Bahrain back in 1992 so I was a little wary of their enthu­si­asm. (The Inform­a­tion Min­is­ter Dr Tariq Alo­moayyed summoned me to his office and asked why I had entered Bahrain on a tour­ist visa: “No one comes to Bahrain as a tour­ist, Mr Monck.”)

But in the mid-2000s, the small king­dom seemed to be slowly open­ing up. The old king and his min­is­ters were gone. Exiles had been recalled.

One of the more encour­aging signs was a tol­er­ance of digital dis­sent, embod­ied by blog­gers like Ali Abd­ulemam, who ran bahrainonline.org . The Wall Street Journal (art­icle here) noted Abdulemam’s blog as a pointer to pro­gress in the Gulf. He was part of the Global Voices network.

The con­ver­sa­tion about journ­al­ism edu­ca­tion car­ried on for a year or two, went up the offi­cial chain of com­mand, and even­tu­ally went cold. The prom­ise of a more robust polit­ical cul­ture cooled too. That chill brought not only silence, it also brought arrest and impris­on­ment for some.

Today Ali Abd­ulemam is on trial, hav­ing been arres­ted for “dif­fus­ing fab­ric­ated and mali­cious news on Bahrain’s internal situ­ation to spread rumours and sub­vert the Kingdom’s secur­ity and sta­bil­ity.” (http://english.bna.bh/?ID=89532 ). I know the pro­gress­ive and enlightened people I met in Bahrain’s gov­ern­ment will be embar­rassed and saddened by this trial, and that their pub­lic silence will not reflect their private views. They will also know that their efforts to pro­mote Bahrain as a mod­ern and busi­ness friendly state risk being under­mined by the actions of the secur­ity appar­atus. In build­ing a bet­ter future for Bahrain enabling dis­sent — and integ­rat­ing it — is as import­ant as inter­na­tional advert­ising campaigns.

You can read more about Ali Abd­ulemam in the WSJ, The Atlantic and on Global Voices.

Ali Abdulemam’s trial is sched­uled for today (Thursday 28, Octo­ber). His case is but one of many, yet it stands for what many people hoped blogs and the digital revolu­tion might achieve, and his impris­on­ment is testi­mony to another broken tech-topian prom­ise. And he deserves better.