Jailing Journos
YO editorial calls for diversity of viewpoints, with which I agree:
With the sentencing this week of Kamal al-Olufi, editor of the Al-Rai Al-A’am weekly, Yemen has just failed one of the first tests of its fledgling democracy. Al-Olufi was thrown in jail earlier Saturday, after Judge Hassan al-Akwa’a sentenced him to a year behind bars for insulting Islam and abusing the prophet by republishing Danish cartoons that depicted the Prophet.
Fortunately, al-Olufi was later released, pending his appeal. Yet al-Olufi’s paper has been shut down for six months, and he has been barred from writing. This appalls us on many levels. First, it makes a mockery of Yemen’s claims that is has a free press—one of the crucial components of any democracy. Threatening editors and writers with jail time and the closure of their paper every time they write or publish something unpopular or controversial has a chilling effect on journalism overall. Reporters will be afraid to tell their readers the truth, and revert to parroting the government line.
Why have a paper at all, if only to repeat the words dictated by authorities? The role of a newspaper is to provide readers with all the news they need to know about the events of the world around them, and to make sense of these events, no matter how unsavory. If we are constantly looking over our shoulders in fear of retribution, we cannot play our proper democratic role. Our only concern should be our commitment to reporting the truth, to the best of our ability. Our obligation is to our readers.
The harsh sentence imposed upon al-Olufi’s additionally has the effect of legitimizing another editor’s recent request for political asylum in the U.K., another embarrassment to the country. Khaled Salman, the editor-in-chief of al-Thawri weekly, left Yemen’s media contingent at the London donors’ conference to request political asylum, claiming that his reporting and writing is stifled in Yemen. Many scoffed at this request, saying that Salman was shaming the country, and that Yemen had a perfectly free press.
Looks like he may have had a point after all. The sentencing of al-Olufi makes it crystal clear that newspapers in Yemen are not allowed to publish anything they believe to be newsworthy and of interest to their readers. It is also a betrayal of the scores of countries who recent promised Yemen $4.7 billion at the London conference. These countries are counting on Yemen to behave like a democracy, which means, among other things, that it must redouble its efforts to free its press. We fervently hope that al-Olufi’s case will be overturned on appeal.
Only then does the country have a prayer of wiping this blot from its democratic record. And only when the media is unshackled can it truly be of service to the country, the people, and to democracy—which is, after all, founded on tolerance for a diversity of viewpoints.
Copyright 2002 – 2006 Yemen Observer
