Muscat: The latest issue of ‘The Week’, a tabloid distributed free in Oman every week, was not published and publishers informed advertisers that they won’t have the issue dated September 5.
Neither government officials nor publishers were available to confirm if there was an official ban slapped on the weekly in the aftermath of the article it carried on homosexuality, which stirred a hornets’ nest last week in Oman.
However, according to industry sources, Apex Press and Publishing was asked by the authorities not to publish this week’s issue after demands made by some Shura Council members as well as the Oman Journalist Association to slap a ban on the weekly for publishing what a large number of readers perceived as offensive to Omani society and the country’s reputation.
The ‘offending article’ evoked ire from a cross-section of people, who gave vent to their feelings on cyber space.
The topic was trending on microblogging website Twitter last weekend with the Shura Council Chairman, Shaikh Khalid Bin Hilal Bin Naseer Al Maa’wali, assuring his followers on Twitter that the Media Committee at the Council will handle the issue.
Some people had objected to the tone of the article and Tawfiq Al Lawati, Shura member from Muttrah constituency, summed up feelings when he told Gulf News: “The tone of the article seemed that there was an attempt to promote the unnatural act as natural.”
Soon after the barrage of criticism, the publisher, Saleh Al Zakwani, apologised in a signed statement on the home page of the freely distributed publication’s website. And, the article was taken off the weekly’s website.
Meanwhile, the publishers voluntarily pulled their September issue of their business monthly, which they claim was done to correct printing errors. Gulf News, however, procured a copy in which a portion of an article that could be seen as offensive to the sentiments of citizens has been blacked out.
The magazine was distributed on Sunday and on Monday it was pulled out. It is expected to hit the stands again.
