Yemen Journalists Syndicate Organizes a Seminar on: “Media and its Role in Spreading a Human Rights Culture” [Archives:1999/38/Law & Diplomacy]

An important symposium was organized last Thursday, 16th. September 99, by the Yemeni Journalists Syndicate on “Media and its Role in Spreading a Human Rights Culture”. Mr. Abdul Qader Ba Jammal, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs and Chairman of the National Human Rights Committee, Dr. Mohammed Al-Mutawakkel, Sana’a University Lecturer and Professor of Liberties and Human Rights, Deputy Chairman of the National Organization for defending Liberties and Human Rights, and Mr. Nassr Taha Mustafa, Chairman of the Yemeni Center for Strategic Studies, Head of Liberties Committee of the YJS, participated in the symposium.
For two and a half hours, three papers were discussed by the seminar, which was launched by Mr. Mahboob Ali the Chairman of the YJ Syndicate. In his speech, Mr. Ali had confirmed that ” Human Rights and the Media are faces of the same coin, between which there can no kind of separation; because they are naturally and dialectically related”. He added that the mission of Media is to serve the human being and satisfy his wishes and needs of information and ideas which will help interaction between him and society within the frames of society.
Mr. Ali also assured those present that ” we at the YJ Syndicate strive to pluralism and diversity in the most comprehensive sense, especially in such aspects as media, press and the establishment of a democratic culture through the optimum awareness of the role of media and its functionality within the civil society of which Media is an important mechanism and by-product. Mr. Ali continued to say Media is the guarantee that “civil society is to reign and that all its tides and entities shall be able to express themselves freely and independently”.
Journalists, university professors and some heads of diplomatic missions accredited to Yemen attended the symposium. Mr. Ba Jammal presented his paper and started to discuss the development of state and its type and content. He said that with the progression of state, its type and content; the three authorities: legislative, executive and judicial became prominent, and clearly distinguished by constitutions ruling the separation between and independence of these authorities. He said that the freedom of expression and dignity given to opinion and thought has given the press its deep human dimension and its true populist roots. As a result to the media started to play in opinion and action the role of a fourth authority with a vast range of influence in creating the public opinion and transforming it into a decision making or influencing force.
Mr. Ba Jammal said that those who nicknamed the media as “the 4th authority” gave it an unlimited value and capacity in all legal systematic and procedural dimensions- because this 4th. authority or power moves only when honest conscience and national responsibility are there. Mr. Ba Jammal continued to say that “moral and ethical values of society, its principles and determined will all point towards confirming these principles and accomplish its aims through peaceful and democratic means”. He said that the true and noble role of the media is in the struggle for the confirmation of Human Rights. He said, “The main question is how such a role can be materialized? How can such a role accomplish its noble aims?” He said that a philosopher was asked his opinion on the approach expressed by Niccolo Machiavelli in “The Prince” that goals justify means and he answered that the moral and reasoning method should be that the nobility of a goal is from the nobility of the means.
In defending Human Rights, the role of the media should be based on safe faith and morale in order to be capable of reaching its noble aims of consolidating Human Rights and defending them.
The next paper was introduced by Dr. Al-Mutawakkel. He started by saying that “before we speak on the role of the media in our country we have to specify our understanding of Human Rights and our reference authority.
He continued to concentrate on three points, namely:
a) The reference of authority for the media when covering Human Rights issues.
b) The ideal and practical method for the media to play its role.
c) The starting point.
Dr Al-Mutawakkel said ” as a society we are supposed to have agreed on a constitution which we consider as an authority that controls the relations between us, which is sought to rule when we differ, under the light and articles of which we make our laws. Such a constitution is supposed to be binding to us till we agree once again for it to be modified or replaced.
Dr. Al-Mutawakkel continued, “Our reference, our constitution provides in Article 6 that the state is committed to the UN Charter, the International Declaration of Human Rights, and the rules of the International Law. This also covers commitment of Yemen to the international treaties including the two international pacts on civil, political and Economic Human Rights. He continued that “based on this constitutional commitment, those international documents that were signed and ratified by Yemen regarding Human Rights become our reference on Human Rights for any human being regardless of race, color, gender, language, religion, political affiliation, or national (or social) origin, or wealth or place of birth; without any discrimination between males and females”.
In the third paper, which was introduced by Mr. Mustafa, he said that Free Information and Human Rights are integral corner-stones in the process of structure building of modern states and the rule of law and order and the values of liberty. The level of democratic development in a society can be measured the level of seriousness at which a state, its leaders or institutions gives to Human Rights and Media affairs. That level also reflects how conscious and aware a society or organization is in this era and its issues. He said that Media and Human Right issues in our country have seen positive developments since the establishment of the Republic of Yemen on 22nd. May, 1999: Media freedom increased in a way that can never be compared to the past (although confined to newspapers only, as the Government continues to monopolize the TV and broadcasting stations and they were only occasionally open to a different opinion.) Human Rights issues witnessed a similar development, as that was only natural under the declared freedom of political activity. Political detention and oppression, which were characterized pre-unity situations, disappeared completely. The journey of equal military and political sharing between the PGC and YSP succeeded in freezing political arrests until the summer war of 1994 which finished with the prevailing balance and reactivated the security apparatus to some extent. This renewed activity of arrests of some politicians and journalists was kept occasional and at a very low level. As for other economic, educational, social and other aspects of human rights they continued to deteriorate due to the economic situation, stalemate of economic development and the widespread corruption and deterioration of government management efficiency and prohibition of unionists’ activities.
It can be concluded that due to the preoccupation of the official and partisan and other media with the political struggle, Human Rights issues suffered; they were only remembered when prominent politicians were involved.
Discussions started on the three papers and the symposium was considered a good initiative by the Yemeni Journalists Syndicate to deal with such an important issue as Human Rights. A Graphic Arts gallery was opened which contained 60 plates after discussions were concluded. The activity was dedicated for benefit of the Journalist Welfare Fund as beginning core of social activities at the YJS.
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