Channel 4 News team arrested in Bahrain

Channel 4 News has been in contact with the team and is concerned about the welfare of the local driver who was arrested and assaulted before being separated from them. When last seen he appeared to be bleeding from slashes to his arms.

In common with other foreign media, Channel 4 News was denied journalist visas and worked without accreditation during the grand prix.

Tonight, speaking to the programme after his arrest, whilst being driven to Budiya Police Station, Jonathan Miller said: “Right now we’re concerned for our driver…things are rather worse for Bahrainis in police custody.”

He explained the circumstances leading up to the arrest.

“I’m in the back of a police vehicle in Bahrain, completely surrounded by riot police, and I’m being taken to Budiya police station in Bahrain City,” he said.

“We are operating without accreditation, so when we were caught filming a planned demonstration in one of the Shia villages – they have not been particularly pleasant. They’ve been very aggressive towards me, my crew and driver and Dr Al Shihabi, a prominent human rights activist.”

“We were actually heading back to where we were staying to edit the piece we’d compiled for tonight – we’d met villagers in a Shia suburb off the main city, who were demonstrating night after night after night.”

A Channel 4 News spokeperson said:”We can confirm that our foreign affairs correspondent Jonathan Miller and his team have been arrested whilst reporting for the programme from a village in Bahrain. Our primary concern is for the safety of the team, and we are working with the appropriate authorities to secure a swift release. We are also working hard to establish the whereabouts of the driver they were with as we believe he has been separated from the group.”