Bahrain Web crackdown triggers calls for reform

Other Gulf Arab states such as Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates also block websites.

Bahraini bloggers said censorship could be easily circumvented and only damages the reputation of the Gulf Arab kingdom, which seeks to attract investors by presenting itself as the freest economy in the region.

"I will still go to the same websites I went to and get all the media I got before the ban. I am not affected. Bahrain is," a Bahraini blogger who calls himself Manaf Almuhandis wrote on his blog, The Redbelt.

An anonymous Bahraini blogger who publishes under the name Silly Bahraini Girl said: "Of course I can access porn sites if I feel like it but not any of the Shia online forums, opposition websites or anything with the word proxy in its domain."

Access to websites that provide tools to circumvent the censorship -- or proxies -- are also blocked by the ministry, but bloggers see that as futile because these tools are quickly moved to other websites once one has been blocked.

The move by al-Khalifa, who was appointed in November, has dismayed some who were hopeful she would prove forward-looking.

"We were optimistic when she came, and many people viewed her as progressive, but the decree (on banning websites) was the first decision she took," said Rajab, from the Bahrain Center for Human Rights.

(Editing by Thomas Atkins and Sophie Hares)