Kuwait: Journalists acquitted of libel and charges

16 Jul 10 | Index Index, Middle East and North Africa, minipost

A court in Kuwait City has acquitted a journalist prosecuted for insulting Kuwait’s Prime Minister. Journalist Mohammed Abdel Qader Al-Jassem and activist Khaled Al-Fadala, had their charges dropped on 12 July . Al-Jassem was accused of libelling the prime minister on a talk show entitled “Who is to blame, the government or the parliament?”. Al-Fadala’s case was initiated following an official complaint from the prime minister following the activist’s claim that the prime minister was an “enemy of freedom of expression” in Kuwait. Al-Jassem was jailed after he was convicted of slander in April 2010 in a separate case.

Kuwait: Protesters call for release of jailed journalist

11 Jun 10 | Index Index, Middle East and North Africa, minipost

On 9 June, hundreds of Kuwaitis attend a rally to call for the release of opposition journalist and lawyer . Accused of harming the national interest and undermining the Kuwaiti ruler, al-Jassem has been held in detention for over a month. He was sentenced to six months in prison after he authored a number of articles and books critical of the local political situation.

Kuwait: Hunger strike journalist hospitalised

18 May 10 | Index Index, Middle East and North Africa, minipost, Uncategorized

A Kuwaiti journalist was hospitalised over the weekend after refusing medication and beginning a hunger strike in protest at his 11 May arrest.  Government critic, Mohammed Abdel Qader al-Jassem, claims he was arrested for political reasons. The national security ministry has been interrogating the journalist and reviewing every blog post he has written in the past five years. He was sentenced to six months in prison in April for slandering Prime Minister Sheikh Nasser Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah, though the decision was later suspended pending an appeal.

Kuwaiti media banned from reporting on Iran ‘spy ring’

17 May 10 | Index Index, Middle East and North Africa, minipost, Uncategorized

The Kuwaiti media have been banned from reporting on the dismantling of an Iranian spy network by prosecutor-general Hamed Saleh Al-Othman. The spy ring— which was publicly revealed on 1 May—  was gathering information about Kuwaiti and US military bases on behalf of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards. Al-Othman told Al-Aan newspaper that he blocked further reporting of the case in order to allow the police and judicial authorities to investigate it without additional pressure. Reporters without Borders called the ban “a serious obstruction of investigative reporting.”