New press law blocked over disagreements

A meeting between the government and a parliamentary committee dealing with the new press law has hit a snag because of disagreement on jail terms for erring press corps and control on closure of publications.

"We have differences on three main points," Dr Hassan Jowhar, rapporteur of the parliament's Education, Culture and Guidance Committee, told Gulf News.

"The main sticking point is that we want to do away with imprisonment for journalists and editors and institute fines instead.

"Secondly, we don't want the government, through the Ministry of Information, to decide whether a publication should be closed down or not.

"That decision should be strictly up to the courts in a country like ours," he said.

"The third point of disagreement rests on whether new licences should be granted to companies or individuals and what their capital should be," Dr Jowhar added.

The parliamentary committee approved the final draft for the Press and Publications Law in June 2004 after holding 13 meetings with the government, members of the Kuwait Journalists Association and editors-in-chief of the five Arabic and two English language dailies.

The idea of the new press and publications law was for the opening up of the media to include new newspapers and magazines and to scrap press censorship to ensure freedom of expression.

The security incidents in January and the first half of February, however, resulted in a volte face by the government.

The government prefers to give new licences to institutions rather than individuals and has not budged on the jail terms.

Faisal Al Hajji, the acting Minister of Information, told reporters after meeting with the assembly committee late Tuesday, "We do not seek to restrict freedom of speech but we will not allow anybody to say anything in an irresponsible way. That would lead to anarchy.

"There must be well defined rules that permit expression of opinion without hurting others."

Both the government and the National Assembly concur on most of the articles of the law, except the three points that will be reviewed", MP Saleh Al Ashour told Gulf News.