The Committee to Protect Journalists has launched a petition calling on Kuwaiti authorities to “immediately and unconditionally” release award-winning Kuwaiti American journalist Ahmed Shihab-Eldin. The organization’s CEO, Jodie Ginsberg, sat down with “The Weekend: Primetime” to discuss Shihab-Eldin’s detention and what more she believes the U.S. government could be doing to secure his release.
Ginsberg told MS NOW that the 41-year-old was detained in early March following “increasing restrictions on freedom of expression” that have been put in place in several Gulf countries, including Kuwait, since the beginning of the Iran war, a trend she called “extremely troubling.”
“Almost inevitably, during a war, we see countries try to impose restrictions in the name of national security, and almost always that doesn’t just target genuine national security issues, but ends up covering a broad range of issues that are essential for us to understand what is happening,” she said. “That’s why we need journalists. We need journalists on the ground who can be our eyes and ears when we can’t get into these places and see for ourselves, so that we can understand what’s happening.”
“So it is an incredibly challenging time to be a journalist, and Ahmed’s case is emblematic of that,” she said.
Ginsberg was also asked if she believed the U.S. government was using the “full muscle of American diplomacy” to bring Shihab-Eldin, a dual U.S.-Kuwaiti citizen, “home to America.”
“The State Department has said they’re aware of the case,” she said, noting that the government has said the U.S. “has no higher priority than the safety and security of Americans. But as yet, Ahmed has not been designated as wrongfully detained, and that’s a really important designation.”
“A few years ago, the U.S. introduced something called the Levinson Act, which allows for the State Department to designate people as wrongfully detained, and that unleashes a much stronger response from the U.S. government,” she said. “It allows them to negotiate much more directly and allows them to impose sanctions against countries that have been involved in wrongfully detaining U.S. citizens.”
Ginsberg said she believes Shihab-Eldin “meets the criteria for this wrongful detention designation” and told MS NOW the CPJ would “strongly urge the State Department to designate Ahmad as wrongfully detained.”
You can watch Ginsberg’s full interview in the clip at the top of the page.
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