Kuwait Ban on DSLRs

This ban is not about digital cameras. For the Kuwati government all cameras are essentially digital. What they are concerned about is the what happened in Iran during the demonstrations. There people posted images on the net during an immediately afterwards. If you get your population used to the idea of not carrying a camera then during a disturbance it will be easy to round up all the journalists and place them in a government secure facility to only record what the authorities want them to record. It is always essential for the rulling authorities to control their image and the message getting out of the country. It is common practice for repressive governments to shoot reporters or incarcerate them to prevent them from getting a message out that is not favorable to the government.
In addition, this will prevent "subjects" who oppose the ruling government to create documents of repression or poverty or other abuses when there is not disturbance.
Too often photography is discussed as an art form but we forget the strong visual impact documentary photography has had on people.
 
Darn. I was looking forward to some of that great home cooking, colorful locals, and lively entertainment in Kuwait. Guess I'll have to make do with some of the lesser cities like New Orleans or Paris or somewhere. Curses.
 
I worked in Kuwait for a while and common sense was never in any way related to the laws, rules, or whims that were unveiled and retracted on a regular basis
 
It's been posted before, but this is the article in the Kuwait times:
http://www.kuwaittimes.net/read_news.php?newsid=MzAwMTg4ODg1

The don't link to the ban. But, for those who can't RTFM, a few observations:

Kuwaiti photographers who photograph people with large black cameras get harassed as it is, especially female photographers.

It would seem that if your camera is small and/or not black, you might not get as much grief.

The last paragraph seems to sum up the situation:

"Majed Al-Saqer said 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."
 
35mmdelux said:
I wonder what the they would do if you set up an 8x10 Deardorff. Scramble some F-16 fighters?
Click to expand...

I guess they'd like to see a Zenit Photosniper as well. I don't think it is very appreciated by any law enforcer nowadays...
 
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Steve Bellayr said:
It is always essential for the rulling authorities to control their image and the message getting out of the country. It is common practice for repressive governments to shoot reporters or incarcerate them to prevent them from getting a message out that is not favorable to the government.
Click to expand...

Yes, same way that photographs of baby seals being clubbed with ice picks are politically inconvenient to the Canadian government - so they slap a ban on anybody witnessing it, let alone documenting it in any way. They're not holding back on sending cops to arrest anybody coming within photographing/filming distance of the seal hunt either.

Bans on photography for political purposes don't seem like the preserve of far away repressive regimes any more. I don't normally wear a tin foil hat, but this sort of thing gives me the creeps.
 
Just out on Wikileaks: a photo of the Minister responsible for this outrage:


sheikyerbouti.jpg
 
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