Manama: The role of the information ministry is to coordinate media matters and not to impose censorship or restrictions on freedoms, Kuwait's newly appointed information minister said on Sunday.
Receiving well-wishers at the start of his first week at the ministry, Shaikh Hamad Jaber Al Ali Al Sabah pledged to work closely with the competent people and establishments to consolidate freedom of speech and to change the misconception that the ministry was an authority that enforced censorship, Kuwait News Agency (Kuna) reported.
Al Ali who was given the portfolio last week said that he would endeavour to "enhance the national media standards" and help make the ministry "an institution that seeks, through laws and regulations, to boost freedoms, as stipulated by the Kuwaiti Constitution."
Kuwaitis have the right to express their views freely and constructively in order to reinforce the social fabric and national cohesion while shunning attempts to sow seeds of sedition or to defame people, he said.
