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Of Kuwait and DSLR cameras

The ban that wasn't

The Kuwait Times, our source for the story first published as Kuwait bars DSLR cameras in public places, has retracted the claims on which the story was based. This means we were wrong too. We apologise.

FYI - here is the Kuwait Times's retraction, published on Saturday, 27th November. Our story is published below this.

RETRACTION On Saturday, November 20, 2010 the Kuwait Times published an article titled 'Multi ministry camera ban frustrates artists' in which incorrect information was provided. The newspaper regrets failing to verify the information. The article wrongly stated that a ban on DSLR cameras was implemented by the Ministries of Information, Social Affairs and Finance. This information is false. In a follow up investigation, it was proved that no such ban has been issued. We regret this error and deeply apologize for any inconvenience caused.

Kuwait has banned DSLR cameras in public places - except if you are a journalist.

But the ban does not apply to compact cameras or cameras in smart phones. Eccentric or what? And what about camcorders?

Majed Al-Saqer told the English-language Kuwait Times, which broke the news of the DSLR ban, that "sometimes people stop him while he is in his car with his camera, as if he were planning to kill someone with it. He said that he isn't sure what the real problem is, whether it is people taking photos of each other or the size of the camera".

This month, the Kuwait government announced plans to block all pornographic sites and an agreement with Research in Motion (RIM) to "provide information about any number in accordance with the law".

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