Nada Alwadi
Bahraini Journalist To Speak About The Popular Revolt For Democracy In Bahrain
Sonoma State University
Monday Sept. 26 at 7:00 P.M. Ives 101— Warren Auditorium
$5-10 Sliding Scale —Students Free
Nada Alwadi was a reporter for Alwasat, the most popular newspaper in Bahrain, a monarchy on a small island in the Persian Gulf. Alwadi covered the pro-democracy protests this spring against the Al Khalifi monarchy prior to government authorities closing the newspaper.  US backed Saudi Arabia sent troops to help shore up the Bahraini monarchy and suppress the popular uprising. She was detained in April while reporting on the pro-democracy movement and was forced to sign a statement saying that she would not write on or engage in any political activities, and fired from her job. With a number of her fellow Bahraini journalists murdered, tortured, or sentenced to long prison terms by the regime and fearing for her own safety, Nada Alwadi is currently seeking temporary political asylum here in the United States. She has outspokenly criticized the government’s suppression of reporting about what is happening on the streets of Bahrain.
Nada Alwadi earned a BA from Kuwait University and an MA in Mass Communications from the Universiti Sains, Malaysia. She has served as a freelance journalist, writer and researcher for several media outlets, including Women Gateway in Arabic and English and USA Today. Ms. Alwadi is founder of the Bahrain Press Association, which seeks to defend journalists from government repression.
Sponsored By: Sociology of Media Class—Peter Phillips, Sociology Club, CARR, Media Freedom Foundation, Project Censored, and Fair Share of the Common Heritage Project