Last week I wrote the details of Watani’s four-year-long struggle to obtain a permit from the Supreme Press Council (SPC) to issue a monthly version of Watani in Braille for the benefit of the visually impaired. A review of the correspondence between the SPC and Watani Printing and Publishing Corporation on that head revealed that, throughout more than four years, the SPC had inexplicably procrastinated in granting Watani the required permit to issue Watani Braille. Watani was repeatedly asked to furnish the SPC with documentation which proved to be redundant and time consuming to secure. It has taken four years and four months today for all the SPC demands to be met and for Watani to be yet deprived of the permit. The conclusion that Watani was being sidelined was inevitable. I informed our readers that Watani would contend the case in court, and wondered what else could the SPC have in store for Watani?
It turned out I had not talked too soon. Last week Watani received a letter from the SPC dated 10 August, which said: “Regarding your application for a permit to publish a paper under the name Watani Braille, kindly inform us of the language in which the paper is to be issued.”
Comments at Watani ranged from the angry to the opposing to the sarcastic. It could not have been lost upon the SPC that the material to be printed in Braille for the benefit of the visually impaired was a portion of the material originally published in Watani in the Arabic and English languages. Watani had mentioned that much in its application for a permit in 2005. And “Braille” was not a different language; it was merely a system of printing for the blind in which each letter is represented by a raised pattern that could be easily read by touch.
It is obvious that the matter has nothing to do with furnishing the SPC with required data or documentation. If this were the case then why was not Watani asked to submit all the required information at once? Why was it not handed a list of all the documents required to secure the approval—or rejection—of its application? The matter has more to do with the notorious red tape embedded in the practices of State apparatuses, which causes unspeakable agony to those whose ill luck would throw at their mercy. Despite that, these apparatuses are beyond any questioning or accountability. We had expected the SPC, by virtue of its inspiring role in the media field, to deliver a more civilised performance or service. Sadly, it proved no better than other State apparatuses; bureaucracy reigned supreme.
We replied to the SPC’s last letter on the same day we received it. We are now sitting back, not knowing what to expect.
Watani will not give up on its mission in the press field. We believe in the right of the disabled to become perfectly integrated in the community, the same as everybody else. We plan to pursue our efforts to offer the visually impaired a paper of their own. I cannot say when or how Watani Braille would gain the legitimacy to be on the news stands and bookstore shelves, but I do know we will strive for that without fail.