(RSF/IFEX) – RSF has condemned the Kuwaiti Information Ministry’s 1 August 2004 decision to ban screenings of Michael Moore’s documentary film “Fahrenheit 9/11” and urged the authorities to lift the ban. “The Kuwaiti authorities are free to disagree with Michael Moore’s political preferences but it is regrettable that they are using the weapon of censorship […]
(RSF/IFEX) – RSF has condemned the Kuwaiti Information Ministry’s 1 August 2004 decision to ban screenings of Michael Moore’s documentary film “Fahrenheit 9/11” and urged the authorities to lift the ban.
“The Kuwaiti authorities are free to disagree with Michael Moore’s political preferences but it is regrettable that they are using the weapon of censorship to deprive the Kuwaiti public of the information and views contained in his film,” the organisation said. “This ban is all the more damaging to Kuwait’s image as, so far, it is the only country in the region to take such a decision.”
The Information Ministry’s cinema and production supervisor, Abdel-Aziz Bou Dastour, said the film insulted the Saudi royal family. “We have a law that prohibits insulting friendly nations and ties between Kuwait and Saudi Arabia are special,” he said.
He also said Moore’s film “criticised America’s policy on invading Iraq and this [is] tantamount to criticising Kuwait for [what it did] to liberate Iraq . . . [and] would have angered Kuwaitis.”
In July, the Kuwait National Cinema Company filed a request with the Information Ministry for licencing “Fahrenheit 9/11” in Kuwait. The state-owned company owns all of the country’s cinemas.
The film has already been screening for several weeks in the United Arab Emirates and Lebanon, where it has been a success. On 3 August, it opened simultaneously in Qatar, Bahrain and Oman and is due to open shortly in Egypt. Pirated copies of the film have also been circulating illegally in several of the region’s countries.
