H.H. Sheik Jabir al-Ahmad al-Jabir Al-Sabah
Amir of Kuwait
Office of the Amir
Bayan Palace
State of Kuwait
Fax: (011.965) 539-3069
Your Excellency:
We write to protest your country@quot;s part in the continuing world-wide abuse of press freedom.
On this day, World Press Freedom Day, there are to the best of our knowledge 193 journalists imprisoned in the jails of 29 countries, most of them solely for having done their jobs. Kuwait is one of the 29, and we are informed that you are holding two journalists in prison.
These men, Ibtisam Berto Sulaiman Al-Dakhil and Fawwaz Muhammad Al-Awadi Bessisso, worked for the Kuwaiti newspaper, al-Qabas , before it was closed down during the Iraqi occupation. During that time, the journalists were forced to work for the Iraqi-controlled newspaper, al-Nida , but after the occupation ended, they were arrested — convicted of ?collaboration,? and sentenced to death.
As you are aware, the sentences were commuted to life imprisonment and in 1996, the journalists were granted an amnesty on the condition that they leave Kuwait. They continue to be held in Kuwaiti prisons while they attempt to find countries in which to reside.
Your Excellency, we feel these men should be released immediately, and unconditionally, and
that their forced ?collaboration? be taken into account should they express a desire to remain in Kuwait. Although their behavior may have been unsettling to some, it certainly did not justify the harshness of the sentences imposed.
We base our beliefs on the principle, as stated in the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights: ?Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.?
U.N. members recognize that the right to freedom of expression is sometimes inconvenient and troublesome. Yet, it is crucial to uphold, and for practical reasons, as well as principle. A nation that stifles freedom of thought and expression forfeits the good opinion of the world and isolates itself. This may prompt political or economic sanctions, with loss of diplomatic influence and domestic prosperity — at the least, it relegates a country to the company of North Korea, an Iraq under Saddam Hussein that also misused these two journalists, or Zimbabwe.
The Overseas Press Club of America, an independent organization that has defended press freedom around the world for 65 years, urges you to rethink your attitude toward the jailed journalists and to devote as much attention as possible to ensuring the rights of journalists working in Kuwait.
Respectfully yours,
John Langone
Norman A. Schorr
Freedom of the Press Committee