Today’s Grin: We are Forbidden to Report the Following Story
Todays Kuwait Times bottom left corner:
Information Gags Press
Kuwait: The Ministry of Information issued a gag order to all local media over reporting the tussle between two leading Kuwait companies over the September takeover of a KSE-listed firm. A copy of the court order ordering the ban was attatched to the ministry’s letter to all local dailies and media. The following is a translation of the accompanying Arabic letter (shown on the front page):
From the Ministry of Information, To the Editor-in-Chief, Kuwait Times. With reference to case number 900/2006 filed by Mohammed Abdul Mohsen Al-Kharafi Holding Co and Mohammed Abdul Mohsen Al-Khorafi & Sons for General Trading and Contracting against the Minister of Commerce and Industry as the supreme chairman of the Kuwait Stock Exchange (KSE), a court order has been issued pertaining to the banning of the publication of any news concerning the subject of the contestation (number 2/2006) till a verdict is issued concerning the nondisclosure violations. Therefore, please be advised to stop any publication till the case is over.
So the Kuwait Times reports that it cannot report the story. Brilliant.
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It will be all over the bloggo-sphere.. trust me..
and if not.. then it’s coz everyone already has updates thru word of mouth..
sad really
ha – brilliant indeed. the Arab world’s presses have a long history of dealing creatively with government censorship, from printing blanks with the word “censored” where the offending story would have run, to writing an innocuous sounding story with words included so readers could discern the real issue, to (as the Kuwait Times has done) reporting on the censorship to indicate the existence of the story, even if the paper can give no further details. I have seen this in old Palestinian newspapers, and have read scholarly works on the same phenomenon in late Ottoman times and in mandadte Lebanon and Syria. much better than (as happened to friends of mine recently) banning the entire publication, or confiscating it and requiring that it be reprinted, in full, sans whatever article (paragraph, word, name, …) met with a disapproving government eye. bravo to the Kuwait Times for indicating that there IS a story to be told about these companies, even if the paper is not allowed to be the one telling it!
hehehe, for even more laughs, that arab times should report onthe kuwait times for reporting about something theyre not meant to report about.
i’ll eat my hat if that happens tomorrow but only after i die laughing 😛
Little Diamond and SKNK – it’s like looking for the denials. Whenever there is a denial issued, there is usually a story!
DiiGMaa – sorry, WP sent you to spam and I didn’t get a chance to check spam until today. Welcome :-), and thank you for your comment.