Government bans Michael Moore's "Fahrenheit 9/11"

Reporters Without Borders today condemned the Kuwaiti Information ministry's decision on 1 August to ban screening of Michael Moore's documentary "Fahrenheit 9/11" and urged the authorities to lift the interdiction. "The Kuwaiti authorities are free to disagree with Michael Moore's political preferences but it is regrettable that they are using the weapon of censorship to deprive the Kuwaiti public of the Information and views contained in his film," the organisation said. "This ban is all the more damaging to Kuwait's image as, so far, it is the only country in the region to take such a decision." The Information ministry's cinema and production supervisor, Abdel-Aziz Bou Dastour, said the film insulted the Saudi royal family. "We have a law that prohibits insulting friendly nations and ties between Kuwait and Saudi Arabia are special," he said. He also said Moore's film "criticised America's policy on invading Iraq and this was tantamount to criticising Kuwait for (what it did) to liberate Iraq ... (and) would have angered Kuwaitis." A request for licensing "Fahrenheit 9/11" in Kuwait was filed with the Information ministry last month by the state-owned Kuwait National Cinema Company, which owns all of the country's cinemas. The film has already been showing for several weeks in the United Arab Emirates and Lebanon, where it has been a success. It opened simultaneously on 3 August in Qatar, Bahrain and Oman and is due to open soon in Egypt. Pirate copies have also been circulating clandestinely in several of the region's countries.