Media without professionalism [Archives:2008/1125/Opinion]
By: Ali Al-Sarari
Yemen's official media (the visual, auditory and readable means) have lost their credibility to the extent that people in and outside Yemen stopped depending on them as a source for reliable information.
These media have turned into a costly machine for producing temporary impressions, which are often negative and can never achieve the goals awaited by the security and political mentality that controls media outlets' movement and activities.
This inference doesn't necessarily mean that Yemen's official media have lost its entire relation with the audience since there are still two types of people obtaining media outputs. The first type represents a group of people led by the chance and sometimes by the necessity because they are unable to observe the other [non-official] media means. This type immediately feels tedious and then ceases pursuing media means lacking utility and joy.
The second type is limited to those who record and analyze the impressions produced by the official media at the different times and conditions. They touch upon issues, which the official media select as a material for recording impressions about it.
The most prominent matter in the generated impressions about official media outputs is that the country that spends billions of Riyals on media demonstrating poor and unacceptable performance is impossible to be a democratic state. These outputs are themselves the tangible evidence of oppression controlling the nation, thus making the official media's care for an existing democracy in Yemen a convincing proof of the lack of democracy in the country. This is clearly manifested by the Information Ministry's application of the Nazi methodology, once pursued during reign of the dictator Adolph Hitler in Germany, since it is devoted to shaping an impressive image of the ruler, marketing his policies and considering him the only pivot for the evolvement of events and concerns.
At this point, it is natural for the official media mechanism observer to question, “Is it possible for Yemen to be a democratic state and does this country have various and competitive options?” Obviously, Yemen seems to have only one leader that makes achievements, scores victories and manage politics, and therefore this leader is the only source of wisdom. He is the only authority for monopolizing talents and to whom everything in this country is affiliated.
In fact, Yemen is one of the few countries in the world where the official media is still administered in a sterile manner with a minor but critical difference that the Yemeni government-run media are more backward and disabled to convey facts as they happen. They lack the minimum criteria and requirements of professionalism, thereby lacking the required credibility and ability to attract people's attention.
I was shocked at a statement made by a western diplomat whom I met in the first year of the unity's age, that was 17 years ago, when he confirmed to me that the government television broadcast in Yemen is the last thing, which, one expects, may have positive influence on shaping the public opinion.
According to the western diplomat, the official media in Yemen is extremely engaged in producing a simple political propaganda. Adding that the government media is bound to deteriorate and demonstrate weak performance over time, the diplomat inferred that simplicity of the political propaganda will double in a way making the government media lose its value.
Anyway, the objective assessment of the message, which the Yemeni media is engaged in distributing since the first day of 2008, leads us to identifying the consequential damage on the media performance and professionalism as a whole. Since the first day of 2008, the official media have been caring for projecting appearances and tools of the security and military force, one of the ruling authority's assets. They also show how these forces are ready to mercilessly assault many activists they described as “conspirers against the revolution, republic, democracy and unity”.
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-Ahali Weekly.
——
[archive-e:1125-v:15-y:2008-d:2008-01-28-p:opinion]
