JMP spokesman criticizes government for discriminating among media [Archives:2007/1055/Front Page]
Saddam Al-Ashmouri
SANA'A, May 30 ) Joint Meeting Parties spokesman Mohammed Al-Sabri urged members of Parliament to question the government about dangerous discrimination between state-run and party media. He also lashed out at the Yemeni government for violating press freedoms.
Al-Sabri warned against creating hatred among the press, which will have dire consequences, and questioned how journalists and politicians can understand allowing Saba News and September Mobile news services, while blocking those of Women Journalists Without Chains and Nass Establishment for Press.
Announcing JMP solidarity with Yemeni journalists and their right to expression through the means they possess, Al-Sabri criticized the government's overlooking of quieting mouths and freedom of expression, indicating that if citizens aren't allowed, according to law, to exercise sound words and peaceful activity, then resort to other – more extreme – measures.
Speaking at yesterday's sit-in to protest the blocking of news web sites and mobile news services, Al-Sabri declared the JMP's solidarity with journalists with regard to naming the ministers' council yard a “freedom area,” where they will hold a sit-in every Tuesday, He also added, “Restricting press freedom and independent and opposition media is the most dangerous type of despotism.”
In this context, MP Mansour Al-Zindani considered his attendance at the sit-in a result of being “personally harmed by the government's decision,” explaining, “I was enjoying reading the news of my country through these channels, represented by different internet sites and mobile news services, but today, the government has deprived me of my cultural right, which is a right of citizenship as well as a constitutional right. Millions of other people have been deprived as well, both inside and outside Yemen. It also deprives all Yemen-lovers abroad of knowing the situation in Yemen.”
Al-Zindani considers it a normal right to be able to choose whatever means of bringing the country's news, just as there's the right to choose political plurality. He went on to say, “I wonder about a government that talks about pluralism and says it will export its experiences to the entire world. I'm surprised it would export such experiences before providing them to its own citizens. If so, no one will believe in democracy.”
He added, “We say to the government that it's a shame to pretend that it represents the Yemeni people and we say to it, 'You are not. The people want their liberty, but you aren't signifying that.' Citizens want belief in the objectives of the May 22, 1990 revolution, but the government doesn't know them or believe in them.” He affirmed that under democracy, plurality means citizens' right to choose “how they hear, see and read, if there is a belief in freedom and democracy.”
Al-Zindani further considers the Yemeni government a government of price hikes, knowing neither the culture nor the media.
By blocking web sites and disrupting mobile news services, Al-Zindani pointed out that the government has deprived some followers and viewers of its heavy programs; however, he noted that a member of the media on the front lines in the fighting and international struggle is one of the highest grade. “There's no way for dictatorships or tanks, but if the media and intellectuals are capable of communicating their thoughts, the government wants them disabled,” Al-Zindani asserted.
During a simple speech, Brig. Mohammed Ali Al-Akwa' said, “I say to people to run out into the streets in peaceful demonstration every Friday in every square in every town, demanding to lessen corruption and return to the principles of the revolution and the republic, as well as the original articles of the constitution; otherwise, we'll return to what Imam Yahya threatened, that he will rule Yemen for 40 years. Is Imam Yahya still ruling here?” he asked.
Al-Akwa' called on journalists to address public opinion and be informed that they are notthe only oppressed and their message is to help citizens distinguish between right and wrong.
Likewise, parliament Member Sakhr Al-Wajeeh, pondered the Yemeni Cabinet's refusal to meet with several journalists and why it let bodyguards treat them in a disgraceful manner. “Journalists shouldn't be treated like that..” he maintained.
He went on to say, “We are a country of democracy and liberty, but we fear mobile GSM services by Without Chains and Nass Mobile news services, as well as Aleshteraki.net and Al-Shoura.net web sites.”
Al-Wajeeh requested the Yemeni government, which pretends to the world and demands funds under the pretext of democracy, to release such services and not force citizens to gather at its gates to prove that it allows the freedom to hold sit-ins and demonstrations.
He added that such sit-ins don't meet their demands because the Yemeni government doesn't feel what society needs. He requested the government release the services, meet their claims and apologize to those insulted.
——
[archive-e:1055-v:15-y:2007-d:2007-05-31-p:front]
