The motion was filed following a six-hour grilling that passed off peacefully despite some tension, during which the minister came under continuous attack for not applying two media laws on newspapers and private satellite channels.
Voting on the motion will take place in a special session on March 25, speaker Jassem Al-Khorafi announced at the end of the grilling debate. To pass, the motion requires a simple majority among the elected MPs who number 49 as Cabinet ministers are not allowed to take part in such votes although they are ex-officio members of parliament. If passed, Sheikh Ahmad will be ousted from his post as information minister and can keep his oil portfolio.
The MPs who signed the motion were Jamaan Al-Harbash, Ahmad Al-Saadoun, Faisal Al-Mislem, Falah Al-Sawwagh, Khaled Al-Tahous, Shuaib Al-Muwaizri, Salem Al-Namlan, Mubarak Al-Waalan, Dhaifallah Buramia and Mubarak Al-Khrainej. The griller, MP Ali Al-Deqbasi, accused the minister of failure to apply the press and publications law passed in 2006 and the audivisual law passed in the following year to regulate publications and private television channels respectively.
Deqbasi, a member of the Popular Action Bloc, claimed that the two laws included sufficient powers to curb "corrupt media" that has been launching a strong campaign that undermined Kuwait’s national unity and the constitutional parliamentary system. He said the press and publications law requires the information mister to appoint auditors at all local newspapers and other publications to closely monitor sources of funding for such publications and TV stations.
The minister did not appoint such auditors to monitor their accounts and finances although he was repeatedly cautioned to do so," Deqbasi said. "Some newspapers are distributing their copies free of charge and they have no advertisements, so who is funding them," questioned Deqbasi. He declared that "I have serious information that some of these publications are being funded from outside", but declined to give names.
Later, MP Mussallam Al-Barrak, who spoke in support of the grilling, confirmed that some newspapers were receiving funds from outside of Kuwait which "poses a serious threat on national unity". "Kuwait has been subjected to a campaign that is more dangerous than terrorism which targeted our national unity and parliamentary system. Suspicious newspapers and satellite channels launched the campaign," Deqbasi said.
Speaking about the controversial Al-Soor satellite channel, which triggered wide protests, Deqbasi said that undersecretary of the information ministry said the channel does not fall under Kuwait’s law and advised those hurt by it to go to court. But an assistant undersecretary in the ministry on the same day sent a letter to Gulf Sat company asking it to halt broadcasting the station because it undermines national unity. Another channel rebroadcast the same controversial program and the minister did nothi
ng. "It looks he was happy," Deqbasi said. "The information minister has allowed certain media to hit at the constitution and national unity, and on top of that spread feelings of hatred and divisions in the Kuwaiti society," the lawmaker said.
The minister however categorically denied the charges, saying he has taken all the necessary measures stipulated in the two laws to stop violations by the media. He said that the ministry is in the process of appointing auditors at newspapers and TVs to control their finances, but the process has taken a long time because it has to go through the Central Tenders Committee. Sheikh Ahmad said that that since the start of 2007, the ministry has filed 162 cases against publications and 47 lawsuits against priv
ate TV stations to the public prosecution against violations by the media, and vowed that the ministry will implement the law correctly.
However, the minister acknowledged that during the implementation, the ministry discovered a number of legal loopholes in the two laws. As a result, the ministry has prepared two draft laws to amend the two laws to close the gaps and is awaiting for the Cabinet’s approval to send the amendments to the National Assembly, Sheikh Ahmad said.
After that, three MPs supporting the grilling and three MPs opposed to it spoke alternately. The three supporters are MPs Barrak, Duwaisan and Waleed Al-Tabtabaei, while the opponents were MPs Saadoun Hammad, Adnan Al-Mutawwa and Khalaf Dumeitheer. Barrak lashed out at the minister saying that he cannot handle two portfolios and was totally focusing his time to the oil ministry. Tabtabaei said that a number of private satellite channels have proven to be true corrupt media and have been spreading poison in
the society. On his part, Mutawwa said the minister has done more than any previous information minister.
Sheikh Ahmad was appointed to the Cabinet as oil minister in Feb 2009 and was also given the information portfolio following a general election last May. OPEC’s fourth largest producer has been rocked by political instability in recent years amid sharp differences between the government and parliament. In December, Prime Minister Sheikh Nasser Mohammad Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah and Interior Minister Sheikh Jaber Khaled Al-Sabah survived two no-confidence votes after they were grilled. Kuwait’s political disputes have deepened since Sheikh Nasser was appointed premier in 2006, forcing him to resign five times and form six different cabinets. Parliament has also been dissolved three times and fresh elections held.
