KUWAIT CITY: Kuwait yesterday closed private television station Al Youm, which backs the opposition, on the grounds it failed to meet administrative conditions, the government said.
The opposition blasted the decision as a means to silence opponents, claiming the state was increasingly becoming a police state.
“The information ministry has scrapped the licence of a satellite station for violating the terms of the licence and after failing to meet a deadline to rectify its situation in line with the law,” the ministry said, quoted by the official KUNA news agency.
Al Youm Chairman Ahmad Al Jabr confirmed to AFP via an SMS text message that the channel had received orders to shut, and the station went off the air immediately. Mohammad Al Daas, general manager of the channel, which was set up more than a year ago, said it would challenge the decision in court.
“Al Youm channel has received a letter from the information minister scrapping the station’s licence with immediate effect. The station will seek recourse in court against this unfair decision,” Daas said on Twitter. The station has broadcast programmes sympathetic with the opposition. AFP
