Kuwait cabinet pledges action against controversial TV station

Kuwait's cabinet has pledged a zero-tolerance policy towards "anyone seeking to undermine national unity and to sow division or disorder in the country" in the aftermath of the broadcasting by a private television channel of a programme slandering Bedouins.

"We totally condemn any action or move that targets our unity and we will not hesitate to take the necessary measures to safeguard our national cohesion and punish those who plot to sow divisions in our society," the government said following its weekly session on Sunday evening.

Kuwait was shaken to the core after a television channel, Al Sour (The Wall) broadcast a programme that claimed that Bedouins were not genuine citizens of Kuwait and that true Kuwaitis were those who lived inside the walls of Kuwait City erected in the 19th century to protect the Kuwaiti capital against foreign attacks. The channel's name is believed to refer to the wall that separated dwellers of Kuwait City and those who lived outside the city.

The station used highly abusive remarks to describe the tribes now living in Kuwait and claimed that many of the Bedouins had dual nationalities, banned under Kuwait's law.

Al Sour, launched a few days ago, is run by Mohammad Al Juwaihel, a former candidate for the National Assembly, who in the past often waded into controversy by claiming that Kuwait was composed of urbanites who were the original and true citizens of the country, and Bedouins.
Al Juwaihel has reportedly left Kuwait after thousands of tribesmen converged in a massive protest.

Addressing the angry crowd, several MPs said that they would grill the prime minister and the information minister for allowing the hatred channel to air.

Several societies condemned Juwaihel and his channel and the Popular Action Bloc claimed that influential people supported the controversial figure and that his attacks on Bedouins were part of a wider conspiracy against democracy and the constitution.

In their angry remarks, speakers addressing the rally said that other "corrupt media outlets" should be shut down and that the government take more stringent action against "those keen on dividing the country."
However, officials insisted on Sunday that the controversial station was taken off the air and that they would take action against those involved in broadcasting racist hate remarks.

Broadcasters have been contacted not to allow Kuwaiti channels to be put on air unless they had proper licencing documents, officials said.
Around half of the 50 seats in Kuwait's parliament are held by members from tribes who form around half of 1.1 million native population of the northern Arabian Gulf emirate.