Manama: The US ambassador to Kuwait has pledged to give a local newspaper $5,000 (Dh 18,340.5) for every journalist detained by the US authorities for their political views.
Deborah K. Jones made the pledge to Kuwaiti daily Al Rai as she dismissed claims about a contrast in the US human rights policy when the US criticised Kuwait for detaining activist Mohammad Al Jasem allegedly for his voicing views, while the US cable news network CNN at the same time dismissed Octavia Nasr, Senior Editor of Middle East Affairs, for expressing her opinion of Shiite leader Syed Mohammad Fadlallah.
"They will not put the CNN newswoman in prison," Jones said.
"CNN is a private company and has its own policy. It has the right to fire any employee whose stances clash with its policy," the ambassador said, quoted by the daily.
Reacting to Jones' statement, bloggers urged her to comment on the existence of Communication Management Units (CMUs), the "designation for a self-contained group within US prisons that severely restricts, manages and monitors all outside communication [telephone, mail and visitation] of inmates in the unit."
Other bloggers referred to the imprisonment of Al Jazeera Sudanese cameramen Sami Al Hadj who was arrested in 2001 and held in extrajudicial detention at Guantanamo Bay camp until he was released without charge on May 1, 2008.
Another blogger said that he wanted to remind the US ambassador of journalist Joshua Wolf, 28, jailed by a Federal district court in 2006 for refusing to turn over videotapes he recorded during a 2005 demonstration in San Francisco.
