Habib Toumi

MP Faisal Al Mislim

A Kuwaiti lawmaker has requested a fellow MP to reconsider his attack on Iran’s parliament speaker Ali Larijani, saying that it was not based on facts.

“I was with Larijani when he spoke at the Kuwaiti parliament and he did not say of the things that MP Faisal Al Mislim had used to build his statement against him,” MP Mubarak Al Kharainij said.

“Larijani said at his press conference that cooperation between Iran and Gulf countries would help bolster stability in the region. He also warned against regional, Western and Zionist movements working on creating and deepening rifts between Iran and its neighbours, but stressed that Tehran respected the countries’ right to follow the policy that suits their people,” he said, according to Kuwaiti daily Annahar on Thursday.

During a visit to Kuwait earlier this month, Larijani said that “states in the region that house US military bases should know that these bases must not be used against Iran. The region should not become a launchpad for aggression against Iran.” continue reading…

Kuwait Blogging Society

Kuwait’s government will try next week to reach a consensus on proposed amendments to the media law as two ministries have reportedly said that they could not monitor or sue bloggers as a result of limited human resources and a lack of sufficient equipment, a Kuwaiti daily reported.

In technical reports submitted to the government, the communication and information ministries said that they could not deal legally with bloggers, explaining that they were hampered by their limited human resources and technological equipment, Al Jareerda said on Thursday.

The fact that some of the bloggers posted their views and news through international servers would undermine attempts to block them, the paper said, quoting unnamed government sources.

“Under the current laws and regulations, the communication ministry is in charge of monitoring electronic blogs. However, there is no specialized section in the ministry to monitor and follow online media and blogs,” the sources said.

Following street protests and inflammatory statements by disgruntled lawmakers in the aftermath of a television programmes that allegedly denigrated Bedouins and doubted their patriotism, the information ministry has put forward a series of amendments to the publishing and audio visual laws that, it insisted, would ensure greater responsibilities by publishers and bloggers in addressing national and regional issues.

However, the draft amendments waded into controversy after several media people rejected them. continue reading…