Pixiq

The photography and general press around the world republished the story: the Kuwait government  had forbidden the use of DSLRs by the general public. Only photojournalists could use them. The source seemed reliable, even if the story was a strange and worrying sign for photographers.

Now the newspaper publishes a note stating that it was a hoax. It's embarassing for all the publications around the world that trusted the source and published the story, but it's even more embarassing for the Kuwait Times, that will have to explain how they came to publish a hoax. And it also means that from now on, journalists around the world will look twice at any piece of news from Kuwait Times and also at any piece of news that states such a controversial theme.

From my side I can say that I waited a few days after reading the original article, trying to see what would come next. Only after seeing that various publications around the world were publishing the story I decided to go ahead — I am not very trustful of web information these days, and I think it's getting worst — and publish it at Pixiq. I am deeply sorry to have published it for two reasons: for passing on wrong information to the readers and also for being "hoaxed." It just makes us all be more reluctant to believe in everything we read on the media.

That said, this hoax just seems to explore what we've been seeing on different places in the world: the more photographers there are, either with camera phones, compacts or other gear, the more limitations there seem to be to the use of photography in public places. United Kingdom has been an example of the problems amateurs and professional photographers face these days. So a ban like the one suggested in the hoax just took further something people has been talking about and afraid of for the last couple of years.