Yemen: an attack on all [Archives:2006/924/Reportage]
Much discussion lately has been centered on what limits a responsible media should place on itself. At the other end of the spectrum remains the burning issue of censorship, propaganda and governmental limitations on the flow of information to the public. For some years the reformist posture of the Yemeni regime of Ali Abdullah Saleh had credibility internationally because of the existence of a lively Yemeni press. One reason confidence in Saleh's commitment to democratization has diminished is a prolonged and systematic assault on Yemeni journalists, as an informative press is the bedrock of a government run by the people.
The Committee of Protect Journalists recently issued an alert outlining numerous and often violent attacks on Yemeni journalists. The CPJ noted that journalists have been stabbed, shot, bombed, arrested, kidnapped and threatened. Newspapers have been fined, closed, and cloned-ie, “establishing similarly titled and similar-looking newspapers to undercut them and confuse readers.” A transcript of a journalist's tapped telephone conversation with his wife was circulated via email. According to CPJ research, “Witnesses and evidence point to involvement by government officials and suspected state agents in a number of brutal assaults.” In 2005, the violations averaged about one a week. The CPJ notes that the judiciary is also used as a means of retribution against journalists. The latest violation is the verdicts against the opposition al-Thoury newspaper and its editor Khalid Solman,. The paper, the editor, and several writers were found guilty of the high crime of insulting the president.
International reaction to the governments proposed amendments to Yemen's Press and Publications Law has been unanimous in condemning the measure as a mechanism of heightened censorship and an infringement on the rights of the Yemeni public.
One function of the media is to act as a watchdog on government, constructively reporting on its failures as well as successes. With increasing concentration of political power, military power, land ownership, and business ownership in much of the same hands, there are very powerful forces working against transparency in Yemen. As illegal and unjust practices multiplied, so have attacks on Yemen's journalists. In the context of widespread corruption, hostile and powerful elite prefer to operate without public scrutiny.
The institutions that normally would provide a vehicle for the expression of the peoples' voice are disabled in Yemen, often becoming an extension of regime power. Those in civil society with independence are undermined in a variety of ways. The NGO “Female Journalists Without Borders” was recently cloned by a government affiliated organization that began operating under the same name, forcing the authentic organization to rename itself “Women Journalists without Constraints.” Prominent civil leaders Hafez al-Bokari, head of the Yemeni Journalists Syndicate, and his wife, journalist Rahma Hujaira, were targeted by the official newspaper of the Yemen military, The 26 September, with false charges that they were connected to Denmark. In a letter to the Yemeni public prosecutor, the couple wrote, “Such fake information proves that this article is an attempt to use the anger spread in the Muslim world to attack us individually and to attack our institutions; Yemen Polling Center and Yemen Female Media Forum for that these institutions are concerned with democratic, social, and media reformation and development and they tackle general issues related to the society.”
Some traditional social institutions have been distorted by corruption. Some sheiks place their loyalty with the ruling apparatus and work for its welfare as well as their own benefit, with the welfare of the people a distant concern. Sheila Carapico, a professor of Middle Eastern politics at the University of Richmond, recently said in a published interview with James Brandon that Yemen has used a range of tactics to erode the independence of the tribes. “One of the techniques the government uses to extend its reach is to coopt selected prominent sons of sheikhly families, who are almost always also military officers, into the regime.”
Many members of Parliament are also from sheikly families. Parliament is an institution designed to represent the will of the people and act on their behalf. The anthology Building Democracy in Yemen, observes about the ruling party, “The dominant GPC has developed a policy of mixing tribal sheikhs with the political authorities. These traditional forces have come to dominate Parliament through the GPC
