The 35th Kuwait International Book Fair started on Wednesday surrounded by controversy over the amount of censorship applied by the government on publishers. The Minister of Commerce and Industry, who attended the opening ceremony of the exhibition on behalf of HH the Prime Minister Sheikh Nasser Al-Muhammad Al-Sabah, stressed the importance of freedom in the state of Kuwait.
At the same time many publishers participating in the book fair expressed their disappointment at the level of censorship practiced in Kuwait.In Kuwait, freedom of expression and other forms of freedom are guaranteed according to the law for everyone, Kuwaitis and non-Kuwaitis,” said Ahmad Al-Haroon, the Minister of Commerce and Industry during a press conference after the book fair’s opening ceremony. The minister also pointed out the importance of using modern mediums of communication to deliver information. “We really hope people make use of the technological development of publishing and acquiring information but at the same time we know that nothing can replace the written book. “It will always occupy its current precious position,” Al-Haroon said.
Bader Al-Rifae, the head of Kuwait National Council for Culture, Arts, and Literature (KNCCAL) said that the era of open spaces leaves no more room to ban words, ideas or articles, not to mention books. “Nonetheless,” Al-Rifae said, “we need to realize that all of our lives are just a sum of collided forces and pressures. We can say that people’s collisions lead to some sort of balance and this is the kind of balance that we are now witnessing. The amount of freedoms that the minister pointed out, and the limits set on them, are also the result for social clashes,” he pointed. He added that the world is heading toward more freedoms and openness.
The annual occasion usually generates a wave of anger from publishers and activists in the country. In 2009 there were protests against what many called excessive censorship. The controversy over this year’s exhibition started long before the book fair itself, with many MPs and activists criticizing the ban of many books in the exhibition. Ministry of Information officials said that there were only 25 banned books this year. While some publishers said that none of their books were banned this year, others had different experiences.
From my list alone there were almost 15 books banned this year, and that only counts this year. I have more than 200 books that are banned only in Kuwait,” said one of the publishers who requested to remain anonymous. The publisher pointed out that books banned from previous years are automatically banned in addition to whatever new books are banned this year. “In Kuwait censorship is so severe that we do a self censorship before the Kuwait book fair,” the publisher continued. “We only submit a list of books that we believe might pass censors here and every time something new is banned.” According to him, Kuwaiti censorship is not only worse than all other Gulf Cooperative Council book fairs but also the worst censorship in the world. “I don’t think most of the censors read the books they ban.Another publisher who requested to remain anonymous said that he has been participating in Kuwait book fairs for more than 10 years now and that this year censorship became worse. “I would like to understand the criteria under which books are banned because sometimes it appears as if it is a random procedure,” he said. “In this book fair, a book of ours was banned, and I simply cannot see any reasonable justification for it to be banned at all! I just want to meet the person who banned it and ask him to tell me on what basis he made that decision. I bet he didn’t even read it.
Other GCC book fairs are far more open than here,” he said. “In Saudi Arabia they make an exception during book fairs and no books are censored. It’s the same in the United Arab Emirates as well. There, they ban books that even I, as a publisher, can understand. Here in Kuwait though it’s just over done.” More than 500 government and private publishers from 23 countries are participating in the country’s 35th book fair. The annual exhibition is taking place at the Mishref Fairgrounds from October 13 – 23
Kuwait Times
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