The voice of the common Yemeni citizen is rarely represented in the media [Archives:2007/1074/Reportage]
Reviewed by Amel Al-Aiqi
Press in Yemen dates back over a century, making the country the first in the Arabian peninsula to have an established press. The first Yemeni newspaper was published in 1878, after six years of the second Turkish occupation of Yemen along with entry of the country's first manual printing press.
During the 1950s, the Yemeni press passed through a short period of liberalism, especially in Aden, which was under British colonization. At that time, official, partisan and independent newspapers were published representing different parts of the political spectrum and Yemeni intellectual thought. However, press liberalism ended with the emergence of nationalized newspapers, a prevailing model in the Arab world during the 60s. Nationalization changed the focus of the press to one of national allegiance and mobilization with the establishment of a developmental press.
The roots of free press in Yemen can be traced to the nineties, after unification of the Marxian regime in the southern part of the country and the capitalist regime in the northern part, under the shade of political pluralism.
Despite the freedom that the press enjoys in Yemen, it still remains highly un-objective and faces many occupational hurdles, said a study conducted by Yemeni journalist Hussin Al-wadi.
The study, whose title was “The Yemeni Press: Between Professionalism and Politics”, revealed that the Yemeni press faces challenge of remaining loyal to its political, propagandist past or shifting focus to a more mainstream, professional style of journalistic reporting.
According to the study, the most important challenges faced the Yemeni media are: the establishment of an occupational culture in a non-professional media environment, the achievement of economic independence within a narrow advertising market, with decreasing readership of newspapers, and the democratization of the press under the continuous scrutiny of the government which continuously attempts to restrict and suspend press freedoms.
Al-Wadi, who is the director of Journalists Trainers Association, said that there was huge controversy and large-scale interest over how to define press-related work: art, craft or profession. “The press is not like the medical field. The former faces interference of intellectual and ideological factors as well as social and occupational pressures. These complicated factors stand as a stumbling block to the development of the free press in a country such as Yemen, despite the existence of official and partisan newspapers.”
The researcher reviewed number of phenomena to improve his point, saying that essays and opinion articles range from 70 to 80 percent of Yemeni newspaper content. “The most famous journalists in Yemen are the column writers, not the news reporters or interviewers. This phenomenon dates back to the establishment of the ideology of a developmental and community mobilization press with the aim of achieving national unification and independent development. Despite break down of the developmental school at the end of the Cold war, the Yemeni press continues to be devoid of any substantive and objective news.”
He pointed out that there are absence of objectivity and prevalence of prejudice in news coverage pervade the Yemeni press. “Opinion pages far surpass noteworthy news columns. Additionally, one will find that a writer's opinion will make its way into an otherwise standard news article. “
The researcher confirmed that most Yemeni newspapers mix news with phrases of condemnation, denunciation and allegiance. “Yemeni journalists find it hard to maintain neutrality when writing a news story. For example, many times the reader cannot distinguish whether an article is an opinion piece or a news report. Despite the availability of outstanding reports, the literary style too often reveals that of a feature article, important facts overshadowed by the writer's thoughts on the issue at hand.”
The researcher described most of Yemeni journalists as professional, however their eloquent writing seems to compensate for lack of journalistic skills. According to the study this writing style imbalance may be attributed to a historical reason experienced by all Arab countries. At the outset of the establishment of the press in Yemen, the press sought the help of literary writers due to the lack of institutions that specialized in journalistic writing. These writers affected the Arab press with their literary style.
“A significant percentage of famous journalists in Yemen pursued journalism out of their love for literature. Former writers took over columns, front pages and editing. Journalists received training in the field, but were not able to abandon the subjective and critical literary style of their pasts.” The author said, insisting that journalism does not merely depend on good language skills. There is a big gap between news writing and literature. Literature depends on euphemism, fiction and narcissism, however, the press relies on objectivity, neutrality and self-denial.
The study pointed out other phenomena that is Yemeni press is inundated with political commentary at the expense of social and cultural news coverage. “The Yemeni press is more interested in the decisions and policies of government officials and the actions of opposing political parties. These issues occupy most of the newspaper pages while other aspects of life related to social and cultural matters do not hold an important place on the Yemeni press agenda. The problem is so pronounced that even when “non-political” subjects are written about, they are treated politically or with a partisan view in order to defend or condemn the government. The voice of the common Yemeni citizen is rarely represented on the newspaper page.”
In addition, the study explained that the Yemeni press is predominantly published on a weekly basis. Daily newspapers issued in Yemen are a minority. This is definitely attributed to lack of financial support. Most of the time, important events take place every day, but Yemeni readers are forced to wait until their desired newspaper comes out with the story. This deficit affects the efficiency of the Yemeni press in terms of following up on events and keeping their readers informed.
Many journalists are affiliated with particular political parties and their respective partisan newspapers, said the study adding that the pressman may also have a link to an employee in the public newspapers. “This affiliation will more than likely play itself out in the journalist's writing, which he/she utilizes to express the policies and agenda of his/her respective party.”
The writer suggested that such phenomena is attributed to lack of crafty training as well as absence of an occupational culture. He added “But it appears to be a significant leap for Yemeni journalists to achieve what the partisan press accomplished in Europe. The partisan press shed its politically motivated roots gradually, slowly decreasing the amount of paper space dedicated to party news. This left more room for stories related to community issues.”
Talking about electronic media, the study showed that Yemeni newspapers have found themselves unable to streamline between their print and web editions, sometimes leading to many story contradictions and inconsistencies. The electronic copies could update news every day, however, the hard copies could only publish a summary of events in their weekly issues. So, the electronic copies contain more detailed and updated news than their similar hard copies. This has forced many newspapers to choose between focusing more on print or electronic news dissemination.
The author also revealed that many Yemeni newspapers face space restrictions. That is, lack of page space restricts the technical solutions allowed to the press producer, leading to the reduction of publishable materials within a single issue. This limitation imposed on Yemeni newspapers does not only affect the shape but also the quality of material, as journalists are forced to minimize story content and overlook coverage of important issues.
However, the writer emphasized that the newspaper becomes the strongest instrument for political change as well as for expressing the opposition's demands. Thus, newspapers play an important role in the political arena, especially with the limited participation of the opposition parties in the parliament and their absence amid the community.
Authorities methods to suppress press
The writer also reviewed the legal and monitoring problems. He mentioned that Yemen unification on May 22, 1990, led to two important turning points in the country's contemporary history: political and media plurality. This posed a huge challenge to Yemeni authorities, who developed many mechanisms to contain such plurality and reduce the influence of opposition parties and their respective newspapers.
There are many mechanisms were and still used by the Yemeni authorities to suppress freedom of expression said the study; forming press laws, Illegal detentions, and Journalists' legal prosecution, can restricting press freedom.
The Press Law
“Press law No. 25 of 1990 marked the beginning of press freedoms in Yemen, despite containing many restrictive clauses. For instance, the editor-in-chief completely bears criminal responsibility of the news items published in his/her paper. This clause places psychological and occupational pressure upon the editor-in-chief, turning him/her into a monitor inside the newspaper more than being in charge of editing and improving it.” The researcher said, adding the Yemeni legislature enacted severe sanctions on the violating journalist such as imprisonment and fines. “Although pressmen demanded abolishing the imprisonment penalty, with the president's approval in principle, the imprisonment verdicts issued against journalists have remarkably increased.”
The press law also empowered judges to impose hefty fines on journalists. Additionally, it ensured resorting to prosecution in the case of press violations. But, the law contradicted this article by entitling the Ministry of Information to constrain newspapers without legal mandate. The ministry thus is able to censor newspapers, requiring that the latter submit a copy of each issue to be scanned by the publishing staff in the ministry before approval of distribution.
The writer also observed that the abduction and detainment of journalists has become a frequent act. Journalists are often abducted due to publishing press material seen as a threat to national security. Detention is usually done without any authority or order of prosecution. “The question remains: If the journalist has published something breeching the law, why did the concerned parties not summon him/her officially to the prosecution of press and printings in lieu of detention or kidnapping? The ostensible purpose of this is to enact disciplinary and alarming actions without taking formal procedures against journalists. Official prosecution takes time and journalists are usually acquitted. The disciplinary and monitoring actions, such as restricting freedom of press through abducting and detaining journalists, are done secretly by security bodies along with national intelligence.” Said the writer.
The writer insisting that there is no opposing the authority's right to prosecute any newspaper seen as breaking the law. “This is one of the principles required by democracy, to have disciplinary procedures. However, encumbering opposition newspapers by way of lawsuits and prosecution routinely makes this right a manipulative instrument used by the authority to control newspapers. You can hardly find a newspaper free of cases filed by the government. Most of the newspapers – partisan or independent – have been prosecuted several times. There is a pressing need for journalists to unite in efforts to face these continuous prosecutions, considered misappropriation of a necessary power.”
The writer exposed that many editor-in-chiefs and journalists have been subjected to intimidation, bashing, attacks and life threats by unknown personnel due to their opposing authority or social figures. Though the government denied involvement with such aggressions, there is adequate evidence indicating otherwise.
“Yemeni authorities launched a criticism campaign, backed by armed forces, against journalists under the pretext that these journalist were attacking the military corporation. This campaign incited soldiers to attack a significant number of journalists, newspaper correspondents and foreign media without taking any deterrent measures against the aggressors. This is a clear indication that the attack and intimidation campaigns are mechanisms used by the government, whether directly or indirectly to provoke and turn people against the press.” He confirmed.
He warned ” If written press laws restrict press freedom, unwritten “laws” create challenges to press work in Yemen. The press law had put restrictions for publications on coverage of certain issues, however, there are unwritten bans in the form of censorship of journalists. If we don't seek out other occupational outlets to break such limits as much as possible, then the Yemeni press will remain developmentally stagnant.”
Who is the good Journalist?
Trying to answer who is the good journalist the researcher drew a framework of the occupational functions of the media, unanimously agreeing upon the following three roles of journalists:
The first role depends mainly on the credibility of reporting events without any exaggeration, considering objectivity as an essential component of the occupation. Accuracy and verification are also key. The journalists must be impartial and honest when reporting news.
The second role represents the participating journalist who is active and creative in selecting news worth publication. The journalist has to explain news meaningfully. This role rejects superficial news, considering it an occupational violation. It also stresses the importance of fostering constructive discussion amongst readers in pursuit of the truth.
The third role is monitoring. This role focuses on monitoring government officials and their policies, criticizing and opposing false policies. The journalist also plays the role of defending the rights of the poor masses against wealthy people.
“The outstanding journalist is one who adopts one of the three roles mentioned above within a frame of professionalism and objectivity as much as allowed by human nature, intellectual and political affiliations.
The prominent journalist is the one who is active, neutral and able to go beyond the ostensible grounds of events so he/she can gain truthful news. He/she can seek out various sources in order to present a complete picture of the event. This journalist can be objective and can differentiate between the facts and personal opinions, because without objectivity, the news becomes mere conjecture.” He concluded.
——
[archive-e:1074-v:15-y:2007-d:2007-08-06-p:report]
