Media politics, where is it taking us? [Archives:2007/1083/Opinion]
By: Ali Al-Sarari
The Yemeni authorities pin great hopes in meeting the requirements of benefiting from the Millennium Challenge Account's funds, however, in fact what they are currently doing doesn't qualify them for success but for collapse. Yemen got a second chance to be included in the list of countries eligible to receive funds from the MCA during 2007 after it was dropped from the list of the nominated countries in 2005 because it failed to meet the requirements of obtaining funds.
The primary reason behind Yemen's failure was linked with the series of harassments, assaults and violations the press was subjected to, particularly the repeated physical beatings suffered by prominent journalists. The authorities' denial of its connection with the repeated attacks on journalists doesn't help in dropping all the charges attributed to its security and military apparatuses that are responsible for violations. Evidence of these violations is very clear.
Instead of reforming themselves and correcting their mistakes, the authorities accused media of being involved in a conspiracy to convey bad impression about Yemen and harm its reputation. Consequently, the poor country will be dropped from the list of states eligible for MCA's funds. Despite this, Yemen has undertaken to carry out probes on the nature of violations that target pressmen and punish perpetrators. This commitment was one of the reasons behind nominating Yemen once again to receive MCA funds. In addition, the Yemeni government committed itself to meet the other requirements, particularly taking practical steps to fight corruption.
As the situation remains unchanged, 2007 is pondered upon as a decisive year for the Yemeni authorities. The year tests the extent of seriousness of the authorities, as well as the credibility of the commitments and undertakings it has made. The authorities perceive that their conducts are monitored and no one accepts to be harmed by their negligence and indifference.
As the facts related with Yemeni authorities' interaction with other organizations over the past three decades verified that any commitments made by the government ultimately led to disappointment since the government has no credibility. Even if the government tried to be serious, it cannot achieve anything due to the nature of its goals and interests.
The fact is that the lack of seriousness was very evident since the very beginning after the needy state was given another chance to qualify itself for obtaining MCA funds. The official institutions used to say that the U.S. Administration's acceptance to nominate Yemen for MCA's funds once again is a victory for the government and a defeat for the opposition. They went on to say that this acceptance is an evidence of the regime's successful policies, as well as its moves in various fronts, and considered it as an indicator that the world hears from the regime and ignores any tricks and instigations machinated by the opposition. The regime behaves this way to be the only source who has faith in its fabricated propaganda. It forgot about the commitments it made and began to talk about a new trick by the opposition before acknowledging its weaknesses.
Now, we are drawing nearer and nearer toward the end of the first half of 2007 while the Yemeni government hasn't made any crucial step toward meeting the 11 conditions set before it in order to pass the MCA's test. Four of these conditions are related with press freedom but it is apparent that the authorities failed to meet these conditions. The famous American organization called 'Liberty House' revealed in its most recent report, published a few days ago, that Yemen's 2006 elections retained Yemen in the list of partially free countries while the recent media-related procedures transformed it into a non-free country.
The new thing in press freedom is that the Yemeni authorities don't maintain the situation as it was before the 11 conditions was listed for Yemen to meet. Instead, the situation deteriorated and went from bad to worse. This means that Yemen failed to meet the requirements related with press freedom.
After the Liberty House released its report, Yemen experienced other hostile procedures against press freedoms, particularly as the ministries of information and telecommunication forced SabaFon Company, a GSM-service provider, to devote its services in favor of some media institutions to publish its news stories via the short messages. Both ministries concealed the Ishteraki.net, which is run by the Yemeni Socialist Party, and before this, it concealed the Shoura.net that is affiliated with the Popular Forces Union. In the meantime, the current information minister Hassan Al-Lawzi refrained from granting licenses for new newspapers and magazines. He froze any applications for publication licenses in a measure contravening the constitution and law. This means that the information minister froze the Press and Publication Law and exceeded the limit of the powers delegated to him. He seems to exercise powers of the legislative authority.
Generally, Yemen harms its reputation amid the media procedures and policies taken by the current information minister, who seems to struggle with the aim of applying ancient media policies. He brought such policies from the caves of the totalitarianism age, or the age of what was known as the Arab Republic of Yemen when Al-Lawzi was occupying the post of information minister in the final days of the age.
The hostile procedures taken by the current information minister against press freedom and the nature of media policy, which he passes on official media constitute two of the dangerous indicators about how the situation of press will look like in the future. This means that the country uproot the principles of democracies, which it claimed to enhance while attempting to improve its situation among countries of the real democratic move.
Really, the world knows that Yemen is not a democratic country but it had a relative openness toward press freedom. Now, the country is on the edge of returning to the caves of the totalitarian regime. Predicting the closure of the MCA's doors on the face of Yemen by the advent of 2008 is not an adventure. These doors were not only closed by the hands of U.S. officials because the Yemeni officials preceded them in doing so on the face of their country. Exercising hostility against press freedoms is an original tradition of the current Yemeni authorities.
Ali Al-Sarari is a Yemeni Journalist and a well-known politician. He is the head of the information department at the Yemeni Socialist Party.
Source: Al-Thawri Weekly.
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