Yemeni Journalist Syndicate Election Contentious
Update: Yemen Times
In the last minutes of the nomination process, three candidates for the chairperson position withdrew, decreasing the total number of candidates to five. All five of these nominees work with government media establishments as every opposition newspaper and independent candidate withdrew. Two of the five candidates standout: Dr. Raufa Hassan, university professor and director of an NGO, and Yaseen Al-Masoudi from Al-Thawra state run newspaper.
If elected, Dr. Raufa Hassan will be the first woman to chair the Yemeni Journalists Syndicate. She emphasized the necessity of meeting the journalists’ demands. “I will take it upon me to achieve the recommendations which the fourth conference for journalists will bring about,” she said.
Original Post: The last head of the YJS was the head of the state news agency SABA and was a total tool. The regime’s choice for this term is the vice at al Thawra, and there is a lot of contention about the regime’s strong arming the union to select and “elect” its candidate. (See Almotamar.net article for regime endorsement.) The non-governmental journalists are concerned with several important issues as the following Yemen Times oped explains:
Political parties are focusing their attention these days on the upcoming Yemen Journalists Syndicate (YJS) general assembly meeting to elect a new board and chairman. Being the most effective and important civil society organization, both tae ruling party and opposition have been conducting intensive meetings, trying to mobilize journalists to vote for their candidates. The ruling party, in particular, has been mustering journalists working for the state-run media to vote for a selected list representing the party. Heads of these media outlets have used their positions to influence their journalists to vote for a specific group of journalists. This demonstrates how these parties are keen to control the YJS and manipulate it to serve their own political agenda.
The journalistic community is heading towards the election amid challenges. The incumbent board has prepared a package of documents to be presented for approval of the general assembly, including amended regulation of YJS, a draft code of ethics and a draft press law.It was agreed in the previous election that any amended bylaws should be broadly discussed by the general assembly so that feedback of journalists are taken into consideration. The same thing applies for the draft code of ethics. But, these documents have been published just ten days before the election. In other words, there has not been sufficient time for journalists to read these documents and give their feedback. The YJS amended draft regulation and code of ethics in their current composition pose further obstacles.
Again, the present board drafted in cooperation with some international organizations a press law to be presented by the YJS to the government which has been alleging that journalists do not have an alternative to its proposed draft laws that invited broad criticism. Unfortunately, this draft has been handed a lawyer other than the YJS legal consultant to edit it but it appeared in a different shape that does not serve the interest of the journalistic community.
The current board should have also filtered membership before this election for state media houses including the military ones have presented long lists of new members even some days before the elections. Due to disagreements among the current board, particularly during the last few months, many new members have been accepted.
Therefore, many journalists have warned that hell will break loose if such documents are approved by the board and presented for debate during the election scheduled for March 14th; many journalists said they would boycott the election which leads to split the YJS and setting up a new trade union for journalists.
As of Saturday, March 7, the current board has not been ready with other relevant reports to be discussed by the general assembly. Journalists have been pressuring the board to restrict the agenda of the YJS conference to electing a new board and chairman.
It is crucial that journalists reject influence of politicians and vote for candidates who will address the journalistic community objectives in having a strong institutionalized syndicate that is able to serve all journalists. The elected board will have to challenge repressive draft laws government already forwarded and others expected to be forwarded to parliament to endorse.
We will see who will win, politicians or professionalism of journalists.
