SILVER LININGCan Censorship still be Effective? [Archives:2008/1124/Opinion]
Dr. Mohammed Al-Qadhi
I watched the video tapes broadcasted by youtube website for the reconciliation and tolerance rally run in Aden January 13 which al-Jazeera and AL-Hurra TVs were not allowed to cover. After that, I started thinking how fruitless are the government efforts in banning TV reporters from covering the ongoing protests in the southern governorates or any other activities. We do now live in a digital era where censorship and control are no longer effective. It is an era of mobile technology and citizen journalism. In other words, people are no longer passive receivers of news and information produced by journalists; they are rather active participants in the media production process and therefore, it is no longer possible to set what they should and should not get of news. Everybody using the internet was able to watch what happened during the rally and even al-Jazeera was able to broadcast footages of the rally it got from volunteer people despite locking its reporters in a hotel. I understand banning TV channels from covering such events prevents millions of people who have no access to internet but I just want to underscore it has become very difficult and even fruitless to exercise censorship on media.
The harassment of journalists has recently soared up. Some journalists were arrested and put in jail simply because of taking photos for the intimidation exercised by the Sana'a municipality police against street vendors. Access to some independent websites including Yemen Portal, Yemen's first internet search engine, was blocked to suppress their reporting and criticism. The information minister has recently accused some writings of crossing the red lines and jeopardizing the national interest of the country, and bluntly warned that intimidation against media outlets would increase. This shows journalists are to face the most difficult time in the coming days.
I do not find any reason for this hysteric campaign against the media only that the people in charge are losing control. It seems the old guards or cronies around the president did not see or were more attentive to the major influence of the media but the new cronies around the new people in charge are aware of the growing important role of the media and thus should be manipulated or gagged, a policy that only authoritarian and totalitarian regimes still exercise. However, how far can such a policy of censorship be effective in controlling the information flow and the right of the citizens to be informed?
I wonder if the regime has forgotten about its commitments towards the international community and donors to respect democratic freedoms or it has thought the international support would flow in regardless of its respect to democracy and human rights because the international community has to support. In other words, the regime thinks the donors and the neighboring countries should support Yemen out of concern of the collapse of the system that would influence their interests and that their support should not be on condition of respecting freedoms. But, I guess the government has abused Yemen image as an margining democracy as local and international human rights organizations have been making a big fuss about such a futile policy of censorship and blocking access to media outlets. These voices obviously will influence donors to change their policy towards a regime that does not respect its commitments.
Dr. Mohammed Al-Qadhi ([email protected]) is a Yemeni journalist and columnist.
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[archive-e:1124-v:15-y:2008-d:2008-01-28-p:opinion]
