Newly-elected YJS chairmanMahboob Ali pledges better times for media [Archives:2004/716/Local News]

In his first meeting with the newly elected board members following his re-election as the chairman of the Yemeni Journalists Syndicate (YJS), Mahboob Ali pledged to support journalists and the media sector in Yemen.
Mahboob Ali had expressed his happiness for gaining the confidence and trust of journalists who voted for him during the assembly held last week and expressed his appreciation to all those who congratulated him on the occasion of his reelection.
“I would like to thank all those who congratulated me on being reelected, including Kuwaiti Ambassador Mr. Abdulrhaman Hamud Al-Oteibi, General Secretary of the General Arab Journalists Federation Mr. Salahedding Hafidh, Mr. Naeem Al-Tobasi the Chairman of the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate, Mr. George Macintyre, Head of the National Union of Journalists in UK and Ireland, Mr. Wolfgang Mayer, Deutsche Journalists Union, in Germany, and many others.” he said.
Mahboob Ali had also emphasized that he will be working hard to rise to the expectations of the voters and the country, and will work with local and international organizations to enhance the conditions of living of journalists and capacities of newspapers in Yemen.
This comes after Mahboob won the elections held on Feb. 23 easily, as he got around 400 votes out of more than 700. That was far ahead of his closest competitor Hamud Munassar.
Participants in the elections have jointly praised the level of transparency of the elections, which were full of delays and infighting.
They wished success to the chairman, which will have several goals ahead of him including tackling issues of human rights violations against journalists, economic hardships of journalists, and other issues such as the proposed bill, which could impose a three per cent tax on newspapers income.
Upon pressure from journalists, the government had promised to withdraw the bill from parliament, but has not done so thus far.
The chairman will also be pressing on the abandoning of the law that imprisons journalists, which continues to threaten the freedom of the press in Yemen.
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