Legal Deposit in the Sultanate of Oman: The Law of Printing and Publishing and its Role in Building Oman’s Culture of Democracy

Abstract

Omani citizens participate in building the culture of democracy through the implementation of the legal deposit or the Law of Printing and Publishing. Legal deposit is the law that requires individuals and agencies who are responsible for printing and applying the law in Oman, whether they are publishers, printing houses or authors, to submit certain copies of their work or publications to a repository, usually a library. The present study aims to explore the reality of the Omani Law of Printing and Publishing and discover how the law defines the term "publications". In addition to the role of this law in building the Omani culture of democracy, the study uses an interpretive research paradigm of applied unstructured interviews and content analysis. Twenty-four printing houses were interviewed. The findings determined that definition of the term "publications", according to the law, is very general and covers different items, and the Law of Printing and Publishing plays an essential role in the building of Oman’s culture of democracy. The study also found that all of the printing houses interviewed participated in creating the Omani culture by depositing the requested copies of their publications, although four of them had negative beliefs about the law of "Printing and Publishing". In addition, the study found (19=79.1%) of the sample interpreted the term "culture of democracy" in a positive way.