Kuwait permits al-Jazeera TV to resume work

The Kuwaiti government decided to permit al-Jazeera TV to transmit again from the Kuwaiti lands. This was after two and a half years of ban according to a decision taken provided for preventing al-Jazeera from working in the Kuwaiti lands under the pretext that it does not work objectively with press reports broadcasted from there.

The director of al-Jazeera office in Kuwait, Saad al-Anzi, said that the Kuwaiti authorities notified them about this decision but did not explain the implications on why it was taken.

For his part al-Jazeera chief editor Ahmad al-Sheikh welcomed this decision but he stressed that al-Jazeera will continue its work in Kuwait according to the same professional criterion it had committed to since the beginning and without making changes in its media policy.

The Kuwaiti government decided on November 3 the closure of al-Jazeera office in its lands prior to the beginning of the American invasion of Iraq under the allegations that al-Jazeera TV reports lack credibility.

Worthy mentioning that al-Jazeera TV, which takes Qatar as a headquarters, was banned for one month from broadcasting in 1999 after it had broadcasted a report considered to be insulting for the Amir of Kuwait Sheikh Jaber al-Ahmad al-Sabah.