YJS Honors Late Dr. Saqqaf [Archives:2000/24/Front Page]
The Yemen Journalists Syndicate (YJS) celebrated last Friday 9th June the Yemeni Day of the Press and honored its early pioneers who headed consecutively the chairmanship of syndicate activities in Yemen. IDs for working journalists were given to those whose files met the conditions.
At the beginning of the festival Mr. Abdul Bari Taher, the ex-chief of the Syndicate spoke about earlier demands that he forwarded to the authorities, namely: Correction of registration tables, defending press liberties which are violated continuously. Many journalists were beaten he said. He added that the authorities are concentrating on journalists and their activities much more than those who commit crimes, including killers.
Mr. Taher stressed that these violations be checked so that press liberties shall prevail. Mr. Salem Ba Jamil, who is considered one of the founding members of the journalists’ union activities since 1976 under the leadership of Abdulla Al-Wusabi, made an address. He spoke about democratic activity and its relation with press liberties and pluralism, which widely opened the way for the emergence of numerous newspapers with a wide range of orientations, affiliations and names.
The list of honored journalists included Ahmed Qassem Dahmash, Abdulbari Taher, Zaki Taher, Mohamed Radman, and Ahmed Al-Hubaishi.
At the end of the festival, late Dr. Abdulaziz Al-Saqqaf was awarded Syndicate membership ID no. 1. Ex-syndicate Chairman, Mr. Abdulbari Taher was also given the membership ID card no. 1. The surprise of the festival was Brigadier Mohamed Ali Al-Akwa’s speech, which raised a lot of questions about the freedom of press in Yemen. He touched on the limitation forced upon the freedom of press and emphasized the government’s oppressions against the press. He called upon the media to steadfastly confront corruption and the deviations of government that are haunting the Yemeni society. The festival was attended by tens of journalists and chaired by chairman of the journalist’s syndicate, Mr. Mahboob Ali.
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