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Journalists were also threatened, including the country's only opposition newspaper, Al-Wasat, shut down in late March to silence it. The Bahrain News Agency called its coverage "unethical" for reporting accurately on government repression. Its editor and co-owner, Mansoor al-Jamri, said it was an attempt to suppress independent news, explaining:
"There is now no other voice but that of the state. The news blackout is so intense." Its print and online editions are now closed to prevent vital information from being published.
Bahraini state terror got so extreme even The New York Times took note in its "Bahrain News - The Protests (2011)" section. On April 7, it said:
"Bahrain has taken on the likeness of a police state. There have been mass arrests, mass firings of government workers, reports of torture and the forced resignation of the top editor of the nation's one independent newspaper."
Moreover, emergency law provisions let security forces search buildings and homes with no warrant, as well as "dissolve any organization, including legal political parties, deemed a danger to the state."
On April 6, writer Clifford Krauss headlined, "Bahrain's Rulers Tighten Their Grip on Battered Opposition," saying:
"The intensity of the repression is pushing some toward militancy, while others are holding back, at least for now." Earlier mass demonstrations dwindled to smaller ones and marches, many outside Manama in villages like Saar and Shahrakkan.
Two released political prisoners said detainees are being tortured with electric shocks, beatings, sexual abuse, and other indignities. According to Human Rights Watch (HRW) researcher Dan Williams:
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