Kuwait Cracks Down on Dozens of News Sites, Media Outlets

Kuwait withdrew the licenses of 90 online news websites and has taken legal action against 73 media outlets in the past two weeks, the country’s information ministry announced. The Kuwaiti government went after many of the news outlets for the violation of “spreading false news,” an unnamed ministry official told reporters on Wednesday. There are some 530 licensed news websites in Kuwait, the most of any Gulf country. The announcement of the government’s crackdown on the media came on the same day that Kuwait’s Crown Prince Mishal Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah dissolved the National Assembly, the country’s 50-member parliament, and called for an early general election. The move is intended to break the gridlock that has fed popular opposition and paralyzed the country’s politics for months. The cabinet, the fourth in two years, resigned in April after three months but has been acting in a caretaker capacity. Final authority in Kuwait rests with the emir, Sheikh Nawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, though the octogenarian emir’s duties were taken over by the slightly younger octogenarian crown prince late last year.