Shoot at accident site may become criminal act soon

Taking pictures or videos of traffic accidents or crowding next to them might soon become illegal in Bahrain, as lawmakers in the Kingdom are seeking to criminalise such acts and ensure deterrent penalties are introduced.

MP Mohammed Al Maarifi submitted a proposal to the Council’s Foreign Affairs, Defence and National Security Committee last April to amend an article in the existing Traffic Law, aiming to impose punishment on people who snap pictures or record videos of traffic accidents and circulate them online. However, the MPs proposal instructed to exclude accredited journalists and reporters.

In a letter to the committee, Al Maarifi said, “We’re witnessing a social, legal and moral phenomenon nowadays. We should put an end to crowding at traffic accident  sites to record videos or take pictures and then post them on social media networks, without any consideration of others’ privacy in public places.”

He explained: “They take and then publicise pictures of others without obtaining their permission. Besides, they hinder the flow of traffic and halt the concerned authorities’ work to save the lives of the accident victims. To stop this, we must criminalise such acts by amending the existing laws.”   

The MP told DT News earlier that “we’ve reached an advanced yet dangerous era of communication technologies. People nowadays see pictures of their loved ones’ injured or dead bodies even before they could be informed about it by the concerned official authorities, who are trained on how to deliver such news.”

Traffic Directorate opposes, NIHR supports

The committee discussed the proposal with the related authorities that included Interior Ministry and the National Institution for Human Rights (NIHR).

In their meetings with the committee, representatives of the General Directorate of Traffic informed that the proposal wasn’t required, as no law bans taking pictures in public, unless it affects others’ privacy. They stressed that the existing Penal Code punishes impacting others’ lives and privacy, as well as crowding and hindering the public.

“The harmed person is the one to complain about any of these acts and not the General Directorate of Traffic,” the representatives added.

Meanwhile, NIHR supported the proposal, explaining that the current law lacked any articles that criminalise these acts. The institution stressed that none of the public was allowed to take pictures of accidents except accredited journalists and reporters as part of their duties to cover the incidents. Committee members agreed to approve the proposal and refer it to the council for
voting.