Bahrain’s foreign minister said the country has no plans to follow its Persian Gulf neighbours in banning some BlackBerry services because security fears do not outweigh the technological benefits.
His comments on Sunday come as device maker Research in Motion Ltd. Is facing opposition by a number of countries around the world, including Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates in the Gulf, to the way its encrypted email and messenger services are managed.
Bahrain's Sheik Khaled bin Ahmed Al Khalifa told The Associated Press the handheld devices raise legitimate concerns, but that his nation has decided that banning some of the phones’ features is “not a way of dealing with it”.
“We’re not saying there is no security concern,” Sheik Khaled said in an interview. But, he added: “There are many other ways for the criminals or terrorists to communicate, so we decided we might as well live with it.”
Canadian-based RIM is negotiating with Saudi authorities to avoid a ban on messaging services on the devices, while neighbouring UAE is planning an even more sweeping crackdown on the data services starting in October.
Both countries have cited security concerns. Critics contend that the countries, which maintain tight controls on the media, are also motivated by a desire to monitor users’ speech and political activity.
Sheik Khaled said Bahrain fully respected the decisions taken by other Gulf states regarding the devices, and declined to comment on the motivation behind their moves.
However, he said his country — a small island kingdom that hosts the US Navy’s 5th Fleet — does not see a need for a ban on BlackBerry messaging or other data services for now despite the security concerns.
“It’s not a way of dealing with it. We will really kind of lose a lot of communication freedom just for the sake of dealing with one matter,” he said. Local media in Bahrain have reported that authorities are cracking down on the spread of some types of news and information via BlackBerry.
Sheik Khaled acknowledged there were “some concerns raised” but said sharing information using the devices remains legal. Authorities were aiming instead to warn users against spreading slanderous and libellous information, he said.