Al-Shoura [Archives:2004/713/Press Review]

15 February 2004
Main headlines
– Journalists Syndicate leadership receives YR 25 million, seeks to abort the conference
– The president heads for Saudi Arabia,
– Parliament members freeze the journalists syndicate draft law
– Lawyers' financial subscriptions delay holding their union conference
– Two killed, three injured in Sa'da
– GPC organisation in Ibb calls on the government to stop the policy of impoverishment
– Lahj local radio station suspended
– 41 new arrestees at political security prisons.
Columnist Abdukareem al-Khaiwani says in his article that all know that the democratic margin in Yemen has diminished but that of the press. The political pluralism has receded after most of its leaders have been “domesticated” and trade unions have been sidelined after the authority has confiscated them and civil institutions have been emptied of their content and rendered themselves property of the authority. Amidst such atmospheres the press could not be left with a margin, or for the journalists the remains of freedom. The democracy in Yemen is so much narrow, and this is its own affair. But the problem lies in how the journalists are going to deal with this trend? They refuse the draft law of the syndicate and get surprised by some journalists refusing the government withdrawal of the law, as if they themselves are the government. The journalists should support the profession and the syndicate independence. The syndicate's elections should either be an end for downfall or the beginning of a genuine freedom.
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