US embassy cable - 05KUWAIT1519

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 KUWAIT 001519 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR NEA/ARPI 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: KPAO, PREL, KISL, PINR, PHUM, KU, Press Freedom 
SUBJECT: SILENCED WRITER RETURNS AFTER NEWSPAPER COLUMN 
STRIKE, SEMINAR IN DEFENSE OF FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION 
 
Reftel: Kuwait 1192 
 
1. SUMMARY: Liberal columnist Ahmed Al-Baghdadi, who 
forswore writing after being sentenced to a one-year 
suspended jail term for defaming Islam, has returned to 
work, saying that he must write to defend himself. His 
return follows an April 12 newspaper "column strike" in 
support of freedom of expression and a seminar, held by a 
prominent non-governmental organization the same night, to 
discuss press freedom. In the strike, ten liberal 
editorialists from three of Kuwait's five Arabic dailies 
submitted blank space instead of their regular columns. 
During the seminar, Kuwait's leading liberal thinkers and 
activists called for a strong defense of freedom and 
criticized executive overreach, legislative interference, 
and the religious "hidden government." END SUMMARY. 
 
"I Am Here To Stay" 
-------------------- 
 
2. Returning to his regular Saturday column in pro- 
government Arabic daily Al-Seyassah on April 16, liberal 
columnist Ahmed Al-Baghdadi wrote, "I am here to stay, and 
the tyrant's life is short." This is a change for Al- 
Baghdadi, who said that he would discontinue writing after 
an appeals court found him guilty in early April of 
"defaming Islam." The court sentenced Al-Baghdadi to a year 
in jail -- which he suspended by paying a $6,000 fine -- 
and three years probation. Following the court decision, 
Al-Baghdadi wrote, and told emboffs, that he was unwilling 
to continue writing with the sentence hanging over his head 
(Reftel). 
 
3. Al-Baghdadi said that misleading reports regarding his 
silence compelled him to write again. "I want to defend 
myself. Some people thought I stopped writing out of 
cowardice," Al-Baghdadi wrote in his April 16 column. "I 
thought I would stop writing for my safety, but I decided 
that a free pen should not stop writing." In the remainder 
of his column, Al-Baghdadi returns to familiar ground. He 
criticizes religious passages and influences in the Kuwaiti 
curriculum, the very activity that caused the current 
judgment against him. 
 
"Freedom in a Blank Space" 
--------------------------- 
 
4. Al-Baghdadi's return comes shortly after liberal 
writers, academics, intellectuals and lawyers rallied 
around his case. On April 12, ten liberal columnists 
writing for three of Kuwait's five Arabic dailies published 
empty columns as expressions of support for Al-Baghdadi and 
freedom of expression. An announcement on the front page of 
one daily, Al-Qabas, described the strike as "a call to 
break all the handcuffs that restrain our freedom...the 
blank space is a lengthy sad article reflecting the 
miserable situation of the press." The announcement 
referred to the wide white columns spread across the 
editorial section of the paper, in which was written, in 
large type, "For the sake of freedom of expression we stand 
united," as a call for "freedom in a blank space." 
 
5. Many of Kuwait's most outspoken liberal voices, 
including many who have also had cases brought against them 
by Islamists, joined the strike. Ali Al-Baghli, a Shi'a 
former oil minister and frequent and vocal critic of the 
Islamist influence on all aspects of Kuwaiti society, told 
a wire reporter that the strike was "a symbolic gesture to 
protest the harsh court ruling [against Al-Baghdadi.]" 
 
"We Do Not Have A Free Press." 
------------------------------ 
 
6. The night of the strike, the Kuwait Graduates' Society, 
a prominent liberal non-governmental organization, held a 
seminar to discuss freedom of expression. Many who spoke, 
among them some of Kuwait's leading lawyers, academics, and 
editors, cited Al-Baghdadi's case as reason to be concerned 
about the fate of freedom in Kuwait. Dr. Khalifa Al- 
Wugayan, a lawyer and poet, said that there was no freedom 
of the press. Rather, he said, columnists and thinkers are 
forced to submit their ideas for review, and only the 
personal stature of leading editors-in-chief and newspaper 
owners keeps newspapers from being shut down. He said that 
the country is controlled by a "hidden religious 
government." 
 
7. Other speakers were less conspiratorial, if no less 
passionate. Walid Al-Nesf, the editor-in-chief of Al-Qabas 
newspaper, said that laws protecting free expression are 
not enforced by members of parliament, who are unresponsive 
to many of their constituents. He also confessed that he is 
frequently subjected to "political pressures" relating to 
what he chooses to publish.  Lawyers among the group, 
including Emad Al-Seif and Mustapha Al-Sarraf, bemoaned the 
fact that writers are subject to criminal, not civil, 
prosecution, and jail time, under the current law. 
 
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LEBARON