Kuwait / Middle East & North Africa

  

Attacks on the Press in 2000: Journalists in Prison

EIGHTY-ONE JOURNALISTS WERE IN PRISON AROUND THE WORLD at the end of 2000, jailed for practicing their profession. The number is down slightly from the previous year, when 87 were in jail, and represents a significant decline from 1998, when 118 journalists were imprisoned. While jailing journalists can be an effective means of stifling bad…

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CPJ asks amnesty for two journalists serving life sentences

Your Highness: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is writing to reiterate its concern about the plight of two journalists currently serving life sentences in Kuwait for their alleged collaboration with Iraq during its occupation of Kuwait 10 years ago.

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Attacks on the Press 1999: Middle East Analysis

By Joel CampagnaRoyal succession and rubber-stamp elections set the tone for a year in which Middle Eastern and North African governments continued to restrict press freedoms through a combination of censorship, intimidation, and media monopoly. Ballots in Egypt, Syria, Tunisia, and Yemen produced few surprises as longtime rulers stayed in power and maintained formidable obstacles…

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Kuwait Government suspends newspaper for publishing Islamist critique

Your Highness: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is gravely concerned about Sunday’s decision by the Council of Ministers to suspend the daily Al-Siyassafor a period of five days. Al-Siyassabegan serving its suspension on Monday. The decision came in response to Al-Siyassa’sOctober 16 front-page story quoting Hamed al-Ali, a local Islamist figure who is secretary general of the Salafiyya Movement (haraka salafiyya).

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Kuwait: Academic jailed for campus magazine article on Prophet Mohammad

Your Highness, The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), a non-governmental organization of journalists devoted to upholding press freedom worldwide, is writing to protest in the strongest terms the conviction and imprisonment of Dr. Ahmad Baghdadi, head of the political science department at Kuwait University and a regular contributor to the daily newspaper Al-Siyassa.

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Kuwait: Television station shut down

June 22,1999 His Excellency Youssef Muhammad al-Samait Minister of Information c/o His Excellency Ambassador Muhammad al-Sabah Embassy of the State of Kuwait 2940 Tilden Street, N.W. Washington, DC 20008 Your Excellency, The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is writing to strongly protest the closure of the Qatar-based television station, Al-Jazeera. CPJ has leaned that Your…

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Tunisia: Attacks of the Press 1992-1999

1999 April 28, 1999 Taoufik Ben Brik, La Croix HARASSED Ben Brik, a correspondent for the Paris-based daily La Croix, was prevented by Tunisian authorities from leaving the country for a planned trip to Switzerland after police at Tunis-Carthage Airport confiscated his passport, claiming that the document was missing a page and therefore Ben Brik could…

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CPJ Delegation Urges Kuwait to Free Remaining Imprisoned Journalists

Washington, April 2, 1999 — A high-level delegation from the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) met today with Kuwait’s Ambassador Dr. Muhammad al-Sabah to urge the release of imprisoned journalists Fawwaz Muhammad al-Awadi Bessisso and Ibtisam Berto Sulaiman al-Dakhil, who have been held since 1991. They are the last remaining journalists in prison in Kuwait,…

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Editorials on Turkey in U.S. Press

The Washington Post — Turkey’s Press: Turkey’s Kurds The New York Times: Turkey, Jailer of Journalists The Philadelphia Inquirer: Free speech under fire Turkey leads the world in jailing journalists

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Oil Flows More Freely than Ideas in Azerbaijan

The smell of oil, profits, and risk hang heavily over Baku. To the Western visitor, this port city looks like a boom town. Azerbaijan has discovered new oil reserves in the Caspian Sea which may be nearly as great as those of Kuwait. And outsiders are rushing to town to pump oil and get rich…

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