Kuwait City: Kuwait has allowed pan-Arab
news channel Al-Jazeera to reopen its office in the Gulf state
more than a year after ordering its closure, the television
network's Kuwait director said on Thursday.
"We received the official clearance to operate
normally on Wednesday," Saad al-Saeedi said.
The Al-Jazeera office was closed and the
accreditations of its reporters withdrawn in December 2010
over the channel's coverage of a police crackdown on a public
gathering that involved beating of several MPs.
Its reopening comes a week ahead of general polls in
Kuwait described by many candidates as the most crucial in the
oil-rich emirate's history.
The Al-Jazeera office was previously closed for three
years from November 2002, reopening only after a visit by
Qatari Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani.
Owned by Qatar's ruling family, Al-Jazeera was
launched in 1996, broadcasting into the homes of millions of
Arabs that until then relied primarily on state-run channels
for news.
It has maintained an antagonistic relationship with
most Arab regimes and, as a result, has had its offices shut
down, its bureaux ransacked, its journalists arrested and its
signals jammed.
PTI
First Published: Thursday, January 26, 2012, 20:41