Sunni activist Mubarak al-Bathali has been sentenced to three months in jail by a Kuwaiti court for comments about Shiite Muslims made on his Twitter account. A few weeks ago, he was arrested by secret police, and charged with “undermining national unity” as well as “disparaging Shiites”.
The Kuwaiti satellite channel Mubasher and newspaper Al-Mustaqbal, both owned by Shaikh Fahd Salem Al Ali have been banned by the country’s ministry of commerce on a request by the ministry of information.
The ministry of commerce cited “irregularities” as reason for the closures, however the Arabic Network for Human Rights alleges that the real reason is the broadcast of anti-government seminars and demonstrations by the channel.
Al Jazeera’s office in Kuwait City has been shut down after the news channel broadcast footage of police brutality against members of the Kuwaiti opposition. The footage showed police beating activists, and the channel aired interviews with members of the Kuwaiti opposition. Four Kuwaiti members of parliament and a dozen citizens were injured in the incident. The official reason for the closure given to Al Jazeera was “the latest developments and your interference in Kuwait’s internal affairs”. Al Jazeera’s Kuwait office was previously closed in November 2002 in the run-up to the US led invasion of Iraq.
Kuwait has asked BlackBerry’s Canadian maker RIM to block pornographic sites though they will not suspend the messenger services like their Gulf neighbours.
RIM have agreed to block 3,000 porn sites and have promised to do so by the end of this year.