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Kuwait Bans DSLR Cameras Use For Non-Journalists

Posted by kdawson on from the don't-give-'em-ideas dept.

DaveNJ1987 writes "Kuwait has banned the use of Digital Single Lens Reflex (DSLR) cameras in public places for anyone who is not a journalist. The ban, which was passed by the unanimous agreement of the country's Ministry of Social Affairs, Ministry of Information and Ministry of Finance, prevents the public from using DSLR devices on the streets of the Middle Eastern State. Tourists are to be affected by the new laws and must be aware of this before travelling to Kuwait. Smaller digital cameras and camera phones are exempt from the ban."

3 of 446 comments (clear)

  1. This makes journalists easy to identify. by Lilith's+Heart-shape · · Score: 5, Insightful

    If you can identify a journalist by his camera, it's easier to target journalists when you want to keep "bad news" from leaving the country.

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    I write sci-fi for metalheads

  2. Re:funny and ironic by Achra · · Score: 5, Funny

    Hm... I wonder if a technology ANALOG SLRs that don't use film would be effected by this? For example, using a CMOS analog sensor instead of a digital image sensor. And instead of storing bits, store voltages on some kind of media. I suppose the Kuwaiti photography market might not be large enough to support such a device being created [if it does not exist already], however

    If only there were some kind of pre-existing analog SLR format that could be readily used... Some method, perhaps, wherein photons interact with molecules of silver hadride to form a latent image on some kind of plastic based substrate.. One could envision a method for retrieving the so-called "latent image" via chemical means.

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    Each processor would proceed sequentially as if it had been better for them not to rise against Saul.
  3. Tourists?! by Copley · · Score: 5, Interesting

    "Tourists are to be affected by the new laws..."

    What tourists?! I live and work in Kuwait... As a country, it's really not a tourist hotspot! Any tourist coming here, even if they took snaps of the the most interesting features, would leave with only images of scrubby desert, busy highways, shopping malls, a few skyscrapers, and the Kuwait Towers.

    But, yes, it's a daft rule, and it may well affect the local amateur photography enthusiasts. However, Kuwaiti law is not consistently applied: If you're a Kuwaiti citizen, you'll often get away with something that a non-Kuwaiti would not - especially if you have a bit of 'wasta' (i.e. your father knows the second-cousin of the minister's uncle!)

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    I am bald