Democracy is not a luxury [Archives:2002/30/Focus]
BY MOHAMMED HATEM AL-QADHI
[email protected]
I was summoned to the Ministry of Information the week before along with other journalists and correspondents for foreign media.
We were told by officials in the Ministry we went wrong when we reported the tribal attack on a military plane in Al-Jawf. They told us it was a military business which we are prohibited to report or cover for our foreign media. They said military issues are the business of the Ministry of Interior, which is authorized to release any news in this regard.
Some correspondents quoted the governor of Al-Jawf and yet they were said to have gone wrong. That is their law. But we have considered the attack an incident everybody has known rather than a private military business. We have not disclosed something false. We conveyed the truth of the attack on a military helicopter in which a big guy from the military was injured.
Other three correspondents were sent to prosecution for the same reason. We have been forced to confess we went wrong in covering the incident, otherwise we would be sent to court and our correspondent license cards would be withdrawn if we do it again. We felt really scared.
It seems the Information Ministry or government in general has gone crazy since the terrorist attacks in U.S.A. It is going incongruous too.
It is always shrugging its shoulders, speaking proudly of achievements in the field of democratization and freedoms. Yet, it feels annoyed by reporters or writers or even novelists. Democracy means giving people free room to breathe, speak and express themselves freely and without any sort of censorship. The political regime wants democracy to show up only, but it despises its essential norms. Democracy is not an ornament or decoration; it is a respect of peoples rights and freedoms. Press freedom comes at the top. It shows whether a society is democratic or not. We can not claim to be democratic while journalists can not voice the voiceless and report freely. Our political regime should openly declare whether it believes truly and in heart in democracy, being ready to respect consequences of obligation to this noble norm, or it wants it only as a mere slogan.
Our experience in this field will wither away if it is not nourished and taken care of. It will not grow up unless the rulers open their hearts and ears to listen to other peoples criticism. Democracy is an obligation on part of the ruler to respect the opinions of the ruled. Our problem lies in the fact that rulers in Yemen or other third world countries still consider democracy a gift or luxury they can give and usurp whenever they want. It is not like that at all.
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