(CPJ/IFEX) – CPJ is gravely concerned about the Sunday 17 October 1999 decision by the Council of Ministers to suspend the daily “Al-Siyassa” for a period of five days. **Updates IFEX alert of 18 October 1999** “Al-Siyassa” began serving its suspension on Monday 18 October. The decision came in response to “Al-Siyassa”‘s 16 October front-page […]
(CPJ/IFEX) – CPJ is gravely concerned about the Sunday 17 October 1999
decision by the Council of Ministers to suspend the daily “Al-Siyassa” for a
period of five days.
**Updates IFEX alert of 18 October 1999**
“Al-Siyassa” began serving its suspension on Monday 18 October. The decision
came in response to “Al-Siyassa”‘s 16 October front-page story quoting Hamed
al-Ali, a local Islamist figure who is secretary general of the Salafiyya
Movement (haraka salafiyya).
In the article, al-Ali spoke of an alleged “secular conspiracy in the Gulf”
and indirectly criticized His Highness Sheikh Jaber al-Ahmed al-Sabah for
granting women the right to vote and to participate in politics. According
to Kuwaiti journalists, al-Ali’s comments had been covered widely in the
private press, though “Al-Siyassa” was the only paper to display the story
prominently on its front page.
On a more positive note, CPJ welcomes the release from prison on 18 October
of Dr.
Ahmad Baghdadi, who was pardoned by His Highness that same day. Baghdadi,
head
of the political science department at Kuwait University and a regular
contributor to “Al-Siyassa”, was jailed on 4 October after a Kuwaiti court
sentenced him to one month in prison for allegedly defaming Islam and the
Prophet Muhammad in a 1996 article that he wrote for the Kuwait University
student magazine “Al-Shoula”.
CPJ hopes that Baghdadi’s imprisonment will serve as an impetus for the
reform of Kuwaiti laws, such as the press and publications law, that are
used to prosecute editors and reporters in response to their published work.
As long as laws that criminalize expression remain on the books in Kuwait,
journalists such as Baghdadi will remain vulnerable to prosecution, and
possibly imprisonment, for practicing their internationally guaranteed right
to free expression.
Recommended Action
Send appeals to the emir:
norms for press freedom, as guaranteed under international law
Human Rights guarantees journalists the right to “seek, receive, and impart
information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers”
publication
immediately and without further interference from Kuwaiti authorities
legislative
reforms that will guarantee the right of Kuwaiti journalists to work freely
Appeals To
His Highness Sheikh Jaber al-Ahmed al-Sabah
Emir of the State of Kuwait
Al-Diwan al-Amiri
Al-Safat
Kuwait City, Kuwait
Fax: +965 245 7476
Please copy appeals to the source if possible.
