The channel received a letter from Information Minister Sheikh Salman Al-Humoud Al- Sabah informing it that it has failed to meet requirements by the deadline provided by the ministry and accordingly the license had been withdrawn and the station must shut immediately.
The ministry said that the station failed to meet administrative conditions after it was given a period for two months. The station went off the air around noon yesterday and its general manager Mohammad Al-Daas said the channel will challenge the unfair decision in the court.
Sources familiar with the issue said that the case began more than two months ago when the information ministry began activating the audio-visual law on all local TV stations.
The ministry told the station that its chairman Ahmad Al-Jabr cannot remain its general manager at the same time and that a separate general manager must be appointed within two months.
The station immediately appointed Saad Al-Enezi as the new general manager but the authentication of his papers and university degree took some time.
The ministry first said as Enezi graduated from the United States more than 23 years ago, he should produce a recent degree to be adopted by the ministry. The station later informed the ministry that the process was likely to take more time and may exceed the two-month deadline.
The ministry agreed to wait. But the ministry did not fulfill its promise and applied the law immediately after the deadline passed. The move came a few days after the station aired an interview with former housing minister Shuaib Al-Muwaizri who charged that billions of dinars, earmarked for the development plan, have gone missing and cannot be traced. The claim was confirmed by Shaye Al-Shaye, a member of the scrapped 2012 Assembly.
Opposition figures and former MPs strongly condemned the decision as directed against the opposition and aimed at silencing opponents. Veteran opposition leader and former speaker Ahmad Al-Saadoun said the decision was taken because the channel has exposed corruption, agitating in the process the forces of corruption.
Former MP Faisal Al-Mislem said Kuwait is in real danger, adding that the decision to close Al-Youm is an indication to the extent that the government has gone in attempting to silence its opponents. Member of the scrapped Assembly Faisal Al-Yahya said that the government does not want to hear any voice except its own.
Another member of the scrapped parliament, Mohammad Al-Kandari, said “the closure of Al-Youm channel is completing the measures of silencing people and confiscating the freedom of expression… Have we really become a police state?” Former Islamist MP Jamaan Al-Harbash said the decision is an act of “tyranny”.
The Islamist, nationalist and liberal opposition, angry over an amended electoral law, has since been staging protests almost every night to demand the dissolution of the parliament. On many occasions, the demonstrators were dispersed by riot police which used tear gas and stun grenades. Scores of youth activists have also been arrested and face trial.
