Copyright Law, Facts Exclusion and Quotation Exception
Law No. 22 of 2006, Arts. 4, 21 (News Exclusion and Quotation Exception)
A citation is an address, not a summary. The first part names the law; what follows narrows it to the exact section, article or paragraph.
In force.
A snippet reproduction rule binding public and private bodies.
As of 6 September 2026.
What this law does
Drafted with AI from the cited sources under the direction of UnGovr staff. UnGovr holds editorial responsibility for this page.
Article 4(3) excludes news of current events that may merely be news reports from copyright protection, so a bare fact or news item is never a protected work in Bahrain, whichever outlet reports it first; the Article's closing sentence nonetheless protects a collection of such items where the compilation is itself creative in its selection or arrangement.
Article 21(1) separately permits, without the author's permission and without payment of compensation, reproducing a brief section of a legally published work to quote it in another work, provided the quotation serves a legitimate purpose and does not exceed the extent that purpose requires, with the source and author's name mentioned where the source indicates them.
Neighbouring rights under the Law, covering performing artists and broadcasting organizations, do not extend to a print or online news publisher's own reporting.
If you get it wrong
Criminal exposureYes
Criminal exposure note
Article 65(1) subjects anyone who infringes a copyright protected under the Law, without prejudice to a severer penalty under the Penal Code or another law, to imprisonment of no less than three months and no more than one year and a fine of no less than BD 500 and no more than BD 4,000, or either penalty.
Penalty structure
Fine of BD 500 to BD 4,000 under Article 65(1); the same paragraph also allows imprisonment of three months to one year instead of or in addition to the fine.
- Rule
- Fixed only
- As of
- 6 September 2026
- Currency
- BHD
- Fixed cap
- 4,000
Who enforces it
Enforcement body
Bahraini courts, on a rightful owner's civil action or a criminal complaint
What it reaches
Instrument type
statute
Categories
Snippet reproduction
When LexLint raises it
aggregates_content
Read the law
Law No. 22 of 2006 on the Protection of Copyright and Neighbouring Rights
as amended up to Law No. 5 of 2014, full text reproduced by WIPO Lex