Digital Camera Ban Placed In Kuwait At All Public Places

All the photographers in Kuwait are now placed under a ban on any kind of use of relatively larger digital cameras in public places, says their local media. Kuwait will be the third government ministry in the Gulf state which will be outlawing the typical use of any "digital SLR" (single lens reflex) cameras in public places for all citizens with only one exemption of recognized journalists, according to the Kuwait Times.

All the three ministries; The Ministry of Information, the Ministry of Social Affairs and the Ministry of Finance put the ban practically into practice this last week, reports the local English-language newspaper. It also declares at the same time, that smaller digital cameras and mobile phones are also silently exempted from this ban. Officially the government has not given any statement on the reported ban. Furthermore when the Kuwaiti embassy in London was inquired in this matter, it remained silent and did not answer any of the queries when contacted today.

It is written in the The Kuwait Time, and we quote: "What most Kuwaiti photographers have come to wonder is how such a decision could be reached by authorities, especially considering digital cameras and cell phone cameras have the same abilities.” And later gave an attempt to justify this warning "What most people think of photography as a hobby has become a bit misguided due to the fact that the country has so little exposure to art."

The newspaper gave an attempt to find a reasoning and implied that Digital SLR cameras may have been assumed as "big black camera[s] tend to worry people" and later went on mocking the governments action in these words: "Taking a picture of a stranger would seem like much less of an issue if you were using a more discreet camera or even a cell phone."

Whereas the ban announces that all Kuwait news media must now start using their licenses, which were issued by the Ministry of Information, which is responsible for honest regulation and publishing industry. Very recent report focused on press freedom by the campaign group Reporters without Borders rewarded Kuwait the place in the top ranking states among all Gulf states which had relatively more freedom of its newspapers media.