Journalist and three newspapers fined a total 30,000 euros in separate cases

Reporters Without Borders deplores the fines which a Kuwaiti criminal court imposed on a journalist, three newspapers and two members of parliament in three separate cases heard on 7 March. They all involved published reports containing comments considered offensive to the royal family or Prime Minister Sheikh Nasser Mohammed Al-Ahmed Al-Sabah. The fines which the journalist and three newspapers were ordered to pay on this sad day for Kuwaiti press freedom came to more than 30,000 euros. “These convictions leave us very concerned for the future of free expression and press freedom in Kuwait, especially as parliament is expected to vote in the next few days on amendments to the publications law proposed by information minister Sheikh Ahmad Abdallah Al-Sabah that would gag the Kuwaiti press,” Reporters Without Borders said. “All this runs counter to the declared desire of the Kuwaiti authorities to embody democratic ideals in the Gulf,” the press freedom organisation added. In the first case, writer and journalist Mohammed Abdelqader Al-Jassem was fined 3,000 dinars (around 7,000 euros) for an article in the newspaper Alam Al-Youm on 16 August 2009 in which he accused media that support the prime minister of fuelling tension between Kuwait’s Sunni and Shiite communities. The newspaper was fined the same amount. The complaint that the prime minister filed about the article led to Al-Jassem’s arrest on 23 November when he refused to pay bail. He was finally released 12 days later after agreeing to pay 1,000 dinars (around 2,300 euros) in bail (see http://www.rsf.org/Journalist-held-as-a-result-of.html). This is not the first complaint that the prime minister has brought against Al-Jassem. Comments that the journalist made in public meetings calling for the prime minister’s resignation on the grounds of his inability to run the country were the subject of a complaint that was heard by a criminal court on 4 March. The trial was adjourned. In the second case heard on 7 March, parliamentarian Mohamed Hayef was fined 3,000 dinars for comments he made in parliament during the May 2009 session in which he criticised alleged divisions within the royal family. The daily newspaper Al-Ruia, which published his comments, was fined the same amount. In the third case, parliamentarian Marzouk Al-Ghanem and the Kuwaiti newspaper An-Nahar were each fined 3,000 dinars for an article deemed offensive to the royal family.