New York, January 9, 2013–A Kuwaiti court sentenced an online journalist to prison on Monday for insulting the ruling family on social media, according to news reports. Ayyad al-Harbi was ordered to begin serving the two-year jail sentence immediately, news reports said.
New York, March 20, 2012–A Kuwait appellate court should overturn a March 12 ruling that suspended a private newspaper for three months and sentenced its editor to a six-month prison term for articles defending the country’s Shiite minority, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.
New York, March 5, 2012–Kuwaiti authorities must lift their suspension of the privately owned newspaper Al-Dar and drop antistate charges lodged in connection with articles that sought to defend the country’s Shiite minority, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.
The Middle East’s political shifts changed conditions for journalists dramatically. The emerging trends favor free expression, but are filled with ambiguity and depend on the political configurations to emerge after the revolutionary dust has settled. By Mohamed Abdel Dayem
ATTACKS ON THE PRESS: 2010 • Main Index Middle East and North Africa: • Suppression Under the Cover of National Security Country Summaries • Egypt • Iran • Iraq • Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory • Lebanon • Morocco • Sudan • Tunisia • Turkey • Yemen • Other nations ALGERIA In September, police…
New York, December 13, 2010–The Kuwaiti Ministry of Information announced today it has shut down Al-Jazeera’s office in Kuwait, the official Kuwait News Agency (KUNA) reported. The ministry also withdrew press accreditation from all of Al-Jazeera’s local staff. The suspension came after the Doha-based pan-Arab news satellite station aired live footage of Kuwaiti police cracking down on…
New York, November 23, 2010–The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns a one-year prison sentence given to Mohammed Abdulqader al-Jassem, a Kuwaiti writer and journalist, on Monday. A criminal court convicted al-Jassem of criminal defamation in connection with an article he published on his personal news blog, Al-Mizan. The case is only one of 18 that the government has…
New York, June 28, 2010—The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on Kuwaiti authorities to drop all charges against journalist Mohammed Abdulqader al-Jassem, who was released on bail today. CPJ is also alarmed by local news reports that the Ministry of Information will prosecute Al-Jazeera’s office in Kuwait for violating a ban on local coverage of al-Jassem’s case after the station…
Your Royal Highness: The Committee to Protect Journalists, a New York-based nonprofit, nonpartisan organization dedicated to defending press freedom worldwide, is concerned about the ongoing extrajudicial detention of Mohammed Abdulqader al-Jassem, a prominent journalist and founding editor of the Arabic editions of Foreign Policy and Newsweek. We call on you to ensure that this egregious violation of press freedom is rectified in al-Jassem’s June 21 court hearing and that he is released immediately.