KUWAIT CITY: A coalition of rights groups is using this week's Kuwait Book Fair to press the government to give up its wide powers to ban books and other publications. The protest late Thursday is part of a broader struggle in Kuwait and across the Middle East as authorities seek greater openness to Western-style commerce but often are slow to give up controls considered necessary to safeguard traditional social values. Kuwait has some of the most vibrant political debate and press freedoms in the Gulf, but the rights groups said only the courts — and not the Information Ministry — should hold censorship powers. "Censorship in Kuwait has no criteria, no standards. ... We aim to change the process of banning," said Ahmed Soud, one of the protest organizers. "It should be restricted, so each book can only be banned by a court order." Kuwait's Information Ministry says 25 books out of 24,000 titles were banned at this year's book fair, which opened Wednesday — one of the major events for Arabic language publishers and book sellers. But participants claim as many as 120 books were on the blacklist, which included political works and novels from well-known Egyptian authors such as Alaa al-Aswany and Gamal al-Gitani. Saudi author Abdo Khal, winner of the 2010 Arab Booker Prize for the novel "Spewing Sparks as Big as Castles," boycotted the book fair to protest the blacklist. Censorship is widespread across the Middle East and journalists often face tight controls. In much of the region, authors must receive official permission before their work can be published. "The situation is chaotic. There are no laws with which to argue. We don't know what criteria the government uses to ban books," explained Qais Bougammaz, an activist at the protest. Inside the fair, crowds browse the hundreds of books stands exhibiting a range of mostly Arabic books including cookbooks, children's books, novels, computer instruction manuals and religious texts. But some more racy titles were not blocked by censors, including an Arabic translation of Stephanie Meyer's vampire best-seller "Twilight."
