RSF requests reopening of the Kuwait bureau of the satellite TV station Al-Jazeera
(RSF/IFEX) – In a 23 June 1999 letter sent to the Emir of Kuwait, RSF requested the reopening of the Qatar-based TV station bureau in Kuwait City, urging him to ensure that press freedom is guaranteed in the emirate. RSF argued that, as the Kuwaiti information minister blamed the channel for broadcasting insults against the […]
CPJ protests closure of Al-Jazeera television station
(CPJ/IFEX) – CPJ is strongly protesting the closure of the Qatar-based television station, Al-Jazeera. CPJ has learned that, on 19 June 1999, the Minister of Information, Youssef Muhammad al-Samait issued a decree ordering the shut down of Al-Jazeera’s Kuwait office and prohibiting the station from reporting from Kuwait because of alleged violations of professional ethics. […]
Newspaper suspended
(RSF/IFEX) – RSF is protesting the one-month suspension of the monthly “Al Hadath”, for publishing an allegedly “indecent” article. The court also sentenced Madi Al-Khamis, the newspaper’s editor-in-chief, and Saad Al-Enezi, the editor of the article, to pay a fine of US$150 each. Recommended Action Send appeals to the Information Minister: suggesting that this sentence […]
Journalist charged with treason
(RSF/IFEX) – RSF is warning the government of Kuwait against any measures taken to censor reports on Israel. On 9 January 1999, the Parliament (Majliss) called for the trial of Hamed Bouyabes, a Kuwaiti journalist who went to Israel to perform his job, on charges of “treason.” Recommended Action Send appeals to the Emir: drawing […]
Journalist sentenced to three-month prison term
(RSF/IFEX) – RSF is protesting the prison term given to the journalist Fouad al-Hashem. According to RSF’s sources, on 26 December 1998, al-Hashem was sentenced to three months in prison by the Kuweit City magistrate’s court for an article he wrote in June 1997 in the daily “Al-Watan”. Al-Hashem’s article was a jocular comment about […]
New draft law threatens right of information
(RSF/IFEX) — On 15 September 1998, RSF protested the draft law submitted for approval by the official committee in charge of satellite censorship. RSF believes that this law could pose a grave threat to the right of information. The risk lies in the imprecise terms of the draft law, which could be misused to censor […]
Offices of newspaper ransacked
(RSF/IFEX) – According to information made available by RSF on 20 August 1998, on 18 August, about forty men entered and ransacked the offices of the daily “Al-Qabas” in Kuwait City (the capital city). The attackers, members of the Salab tribe, were reputedly reacting to a photograph and accompanying article they felt to be defamatory. […]
Two newspaper journalists each sentenced to six months in prison; newspaper ordered shut down for one week
(CPJ/IFEX) – On 24 June 1998, a criminal court sentenced Muhammad Jasim al-Saqr, editor-in-chief of the leading daily newspaper “Al-Qabas”, and Ibrahim Marzouk, a free-lance journalist with the same paper who is based in Egypt, to six months in prison in connection with a joke published in the 5 January edition of “Al-Qabas”. The four-line […]