RIYADH, Aug 3: Regional press has taken strong note of the British Charge d’Affaires to Bahrain, Stephen Harrison’s request to Bahraini newspapers to stop publishing pictures of destruction and suffering in Lebanon.

Quoting the incident the Saudi daily Arab News on Thursday said the Bahraini press has interpreted the request to self-censorship.

The English version of the letter provided by the embassy in Bahrain quoted Harrison as saying, “We all wish to see an end to the horrific photos of destruction on your front pages over the past week.”

The embassy denies it was a request to the local media to impose self-censorship.

While the statement was expressing the hope that diplomacy would result in ‘fewer horrific photos’, as claimed by the British embassy, Bahraini editors interpreted it as a direct request for them to censor themselves by not publishing photos of war crimes.

Bahrain’s independent daily Al Waqt responded to the letter with a large picture of a Palestinian woman holding a poster of Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah. Above the picture the headline read: “To the British Embassy: Stop the aggression and we will stop publishing the pictures.”