Conspiracy Theories

See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil

Published Date: May 10, 2007
By Badrya Darwish

Its only last I was in Dubai attending an Arab media conference discussing freedom of speech and the press in the Middle East. And honestly I was proud and boasting all the time to the different journalists from different countries about the degree of press freedoms we enjoyed in Kuwait compared to the rest of the Arab world. I felt many of the journalists envied Kuwait for this.
 
But my boasting seems to jinxed the press in Kuwait. Yesterday we received a set of new rules and regulations issued by the Ministry of Information. These rules have many articles. I admit, I agree with some of them. For instance, the ban on publishing ads for the sale of sorcery and black magic books and the ban on publishing material glorifying the leaders from other countries or religious sects that could encourage sectarian strife in Kuwait.
 
But and a big BUT is article number four which forbids the "publication of personal interview with citizens who support or oppose a certain policy which may place the state at war with other countries."

Excuse me? This I call tyranny. It's muzzling the voices of the citizenry and freedom of opinion and speech. And this disagrees totally with our Constitution. According to Article 36, "Freedom of opinion shall be guaranteed. Every person shall have the right to express AND PROPOGATE his opinion verbally, IN WRITING, or otherwise, in accordance with the conditions and procedures specified by law." (emphasis added)

What is politics about? Its discussing politics here in your country and in neighboring countries? How can you stop someone from talking about what's happening in Iraq, in Iran, Syria, Palestine, Darfur, or Dubai even? Especially when what happens in many of those countries concerns us directly? I don't think the New York Times talks only about US politics or the Guardian writes only about Downing Street.
 
Are we back to the days when the censors sat in the newspapers and read every page before it went to print? And if we break the rules, will we go to jail or banned from writing or etc.?

Are we going to have dull newspapers which do not discuss controversial issues? We're not allowed to think? To question?
 
Just publish what Kuna and other state news agencies give to us and go home? This reminds me of the three monkeys statue - one's covering his eyes, one's covering his ears and the third his mouth.
 
I don't want to discuss the other articles which do not concern the newspapers, like displaying photos of political or religious figures from other countries.
Luckily, we can still hang photos of Nancy Ajram and Haifa Wehbi.