Kuwait shuts Al-Watan newspaper

The Kuwaiti government has shut down a privately-owned publishing house responsible for issuing Al-Watan newspaper citing financial losses.

Representatives of the Kuwaiti Ministry of Commerce and Industry arrived last night at the headquarters of Dar Al-Watan Printing Publishing and Distribution Company and ordered an evacuation while the paper’s personnel were working on today’s issue, a source from the ministry told the Anadolu Agency.

The source added that the ministry’s decision to close the newspaper down was due to major financial losses which he estimated to be three quarters of the publishing house’s capital.

Sources within the newspaper told the Anadolu Agency that the publishing house’s lawyers will file a complaint against the closure, which they have not attributed to politically-driven motives.

In April of last year, a Kuwaiti court ordered the suspension of Al-Watan and Alam Al-Yawm newspapers for two weeks for breaking a media blackout ordered by prosecutors on a videotape featuring government officials allegedly plotting a coup in Kuwait.