Disseminating Information in Yemen [Archives:1999/39/Focus]

Shaker Al-Ashwal
Vice President,
Yemeni American League
New York, USA
In many places when people write, others read and respond. In Yemen, however, we just read, talk among ourselves, and bury our reactions in Qat sessions. What is worse is that, the agencies that are the focus of many of the press investigations often ignore the press and its attempt to bring attention to certain issues. Most of the officials in Yemen whether in governmental agencies or other institutions, treat press coverage as an episode of flu. They drink hot liquids, and pump enough Vitamin C into their systems, and pray that the symptoms disappear.
Instead of examining the issues, raised by the press and to respond to them, many officials pray in their closed offices for the hours to go by fast, and for new news to push the story that bothered him away from people’s minds. Time, to them, is the broom that sweeps the press coverage and any attempt to question their policies under the carpet of history.
THE OFFICIAL REACTION
In many cases the only official reaction is a phone call to an editor of a newspaper or a magazine, reminding the editor of the newspaper of the history of friendship between them, or threatening to shut down the publishing institution or issuing other threats. Seldom do we see officials, ministers, or parliament members taking on the issues brought up by the press and addressing them. The failure of the officials to address the issues, results in keeping the public out of touch.
Until now it has been the job of the press to go after stories, interview people and beg officials for leads. Whether a major event is taking place in any agency or branch of government or whether it is just routine operations. It has been the task of journalists to go around to sniff for stories. As the events that take place in Yemen attract an international focus, the officials in Yemen will have to reexamine their public relations strategies, and their relationship with the press and the public will have to undergo some changes.
AN EXPLOSION SCENARIO
Let us take a scenario that is not a fictional one, a scenario that has happened, and unfortunately may happen again. An explosion takes place in Sana’a. What happens? The hours after the explosion are chaotic not only in terms of the tragedy but also in terms of the flow of information. In this day and age, the news from Yemen takes only minutes to be on the newswire, and on the Internet. News reporters rush to the scene trying to figure out what happened. They interview witnesses, and examine the scene and then wait for the official word. They begin to look around, trying to find a man with some stars, and hopefully some creditability (official) of course there will be many of them around, they will interview them too. Of course they will not be getting the official version, and then they just have to wait. If their timing was right and they happened to meet the Minister of Interior at the scene then they could get an official word otherwise they would just have to wait for days until someone realizes that we have foreign journalists in the crowd only then do they decide to hold a press conference.
Maybe keeping the public in the dark was one of the ways that kept the government out of people’s criticism, but in this day and age when our government is trying to take its position in the international arena we have to seriously consider the way we do things. We are living in the age of information, and our government agencies would have to find ways to disseminate that information to the public. We are not trying to compare Yemen to other countries, but one could count with his finger the number of times our officials held press conferences. Maybe its their way of making sure that when they hold them they will be major attractions. We are not asking the government agencies in Yemen or for that matter all those in power in Yemen to do things as they are done in the other developed countries overnight, but at least let us see the signs of that progress.
VERY RARE PRESS CONFERENCES
Government agencies, officials and even private companies hold press conferences regularly to keep people informed of issues that are in the media and issues relating to their progress and programs. Is it too much to expect our officials and government agencies to organize their ways of disseminating information? Is it too much to ask the government agencies ministers, parliament to hold regular press conferences to inform people of the progress and development or any other issues of importance to the public? Or should we learn to continue to expect to hear from them only when they are about to inject another dose of economic reforms into the body of our people.
Yemen is looking to place itself among developing countries that are trying to attract foreign investments. I am confident that our officials understand that without the political stability, planning and organization it is not going to happen. It is not enough to open a market and expect people to flood into it. The establishment would have to be well maintained, organized, safe and competitive to lure customers. Therefore, the government officials in Yemen will have to make dramatic changes to their ways of conducting business. They would have to work tirelessly to bring order and organization and they would also have to learn to communicate with the world.
Every agency should have a spokesperson who the journalists could approach for information, and who holds regular press conferences to inform the public. The journalists union should put pressure on the government petitioning government to organize information flow from the various government agencies. In asking for that the, journalists would be representing the people and in essence asking the government to be accountable to the people.
THE ROLE OF THE PRESS IN YEMEN
The people are realizing that the current press in Yemen has continued to lose its independence and when it completely does, Yemen will no longer be able to claim that it is democratic. Our journalists and our people have the right to information, and the government officials as servants of the people should create a system that would allow for the flow of information to the public.
When crises or major events take place in Yemen nowadays the world will be watching how we manage them, and that would reflect to the outsiders if we are ready to offer an organized and reliable system to be dealt with. I think it is also the role of the union of journalists, if it is independent enough, to take a strong stand and to represent the needs of people and to insist on a systematic flow of information. It is also the role of the Union to educate the government agencies and officials no how to do it.
I hope that our journalists will become more active in the process of gathering information, and not wait to be in the receiving end; extracting information might become their expected role. It is about time for our government to look for modern ways relating to crises management and public relations, and it is the role of the journalists to push them to do that.
The curtains of darkness have been penetrated by the light of this new age, the age of information. We can choose to wear shades and block the light, but that will not make it disappear nor will it prevent other people from seeing it.
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