Joelle Behlok case should have been filed in Kuwait

DUBAI - Joelle Behlok is a public figure and the news media have the right to publish anything about her that they believe to be of news value and of concern to readers,

By Hani M. Bathish

Published: Tue 27 Jan 2004, 12:30 PM

Last updated: Mon 13 May 2024, 3:58 PM

according to Ahmed Al Jarallah, Editor of Al Seyassah and Arab Times newspapers in Kuwait, who spoke to Khaleej Times on Monday from his holiday retreat in Morrocco.

He said his lawyer will be appealing against the ruling issued by the Dubai Court of First Instance last week in the ex-Miss Lebanon case, and said the six-month prison term was unjustifiably harsh as compared to the three-month jail term passed on Othman Al Ameer, author of the original report, whose article on Joelle Behlok, published on a London-based web site, was carried by Al Seyassah and attributed to the web site.

"This case should have been filed in Kuwait not in Dubai, that is where the alleged defamation occurred, where the newspaper is printed and published, not in Dubai. Behlok is welcome to file a suit in Kuwait.

"I am surprised that the Dubai court took up such a case. A case against an act of alleged defamation that did not take place in this country should not have been allowed to be filed here. Any artiste or singer in the country where it happened should do it, Al Jarallah said.

He said the Elaph web site from where Al Seyassah took the report about Joelle Behlok, is an information free zone as is the World Wide Web. He added that Al Seyassah has a very small distribution inside Dubai.

"We apologised to her (Joelle Behlok) and we proved our good intention by printing a correction the next day. Our job is to spread the news; we did not want to investigate the veracity of the report, we took it from Elaph as we take items from news agencies. We write such articles about world leaders and their families. All they ask is that we publish a correction in case the report is false. Ms Behlok is a public figure," Al Jarallah said.

He said had the libel and defamation suit been filed in Kuwait, the legal system there would, at the most, have awarded a monetary amount as compensation to Joelle Behlok.

"As long as you show absence of malice and good intentions by printing a correction you are not held legally culpable beyond paying compensation, at least you are not sentenced to a jail term," Al Jarallah said, adding that the ruling is a blow to the freedom of Press and media. Al Jarallah has never been too long out of the news.