Yemen researcher at Human Rights Watch Belkis Wille presents a report entitled "'A Life-Threatening Career': Attacks on Journalists under Yemen's New Government" during a press conference on September 19, 2013, in the Yemeni capital, Sana'a. (MOHAMMED HUWAIS/AFP/Getty Images)[/caption]Regardless of their political affiliation, ever since the events of 2011, Yemenis have lobbied for stronger, more modern civil institutions, keen to see the reforms so many of their compatriots fought for materialize.
Yemen, the poorest and most populous nation in the Arabian Peninsula, has moved ahead by leaps and bounds since former president Ali Abdullah Saleh announced he was transferring power to his then-second-in-command, Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi. However, freedom of the press has remained an elusive concept, with various politicians and officials working hard to keep the media under control.
Since “a people that wants to be free must arm itself with a free press,” as journalist George Seldes once said, Yemeni political and human rights activists have endeavored to reform the country’s media culture and narrative, determined to pry the press from the claws of state censorship.
Even though Yemen fares rather well when it comes to freedom of the press in comparison to many other states in the region, journalists have been regularly prevented from reporting the truth by being physically abused, threatened, and in some instances imprisoned. It is these repressive methods and culture of abuse that journalists and activists have sworn to eliminate, hoping to build a free and independent media in its stead.
They have an inherent advantage. While officials have proven unwilling to break old habits and keen to exert control over the flow of information, the Internet challenges Yemen’s state media apparatus in a way that activists cannot.
As more Yemenis have gained access to the Internet, the ways in which information is disseminated has changed tremendously. In what is a direct challenge to the state, Yemen’s new citizen journalists and “netizens” have taken to posting and sharing whatever thoughts, information and documents they feel will add to the broader debate, beyond all control or censorship.
Not only has the Internet made the world rather smaller by transcending geography in some ways, it has now forced state officials and companies to rethink their media strategy by confronting their version of the truth with facts, more often than not acting as an unforgiving mirror.
As a result, Yemeni officials have had no other choice but to learn to be more forthcoming in their discourse and commitment to transparency. The Internet has become a powerful, democratic tool in the hands of the people. No longer will the government be able to impose its narrative onto the media by shrouding its dealings in secrecy.
Just as the Arab Spring has been empowered by social media, Yemen’s press has been transformed by the sheer potential the Internet offers. It has grown not only in diversity but in power, and it is the people who are now sitting in the driver’s seat—not the state.
In a recent report published in the Christian Science Monitor, Adam Baron noted how Yemen’s Defense Ministry has had to admit to drone strikes and civilian casualties it previously sought to sweep under the carpet, rather than risk facing popular backlash.
Empowered by access to information, Yemenis have made it clear they intend to become free actors rather than passive entities awaiting instructions from the elite. Bearing in mind that the number of Internet users has increased tenfold since 2011, one can only assume that Yemen’s media will see yet more transformations as its people come to grasp the extent of their new power.
But if the government has so far failed to keep up in the information war, overwhelmed by the explosion of new news sites, blogs, and Twitter and Facebook accounts—all carriers of data and information—Yemen’s fast-moving media landscape is a double-edged sword. Easy access has meant that radicals and extremists have new forums to disseminate their poison across the web, promoting intolerance and violence by playing on Yemenis’ fears and prejudices.
The International Centre for the Study of Radicalization (ISRA) published a report in December 2013 on the role the Internet plays as a recruiting tool for Al-Qaeda. It concluded that social networking sites and other online media platforms have greatly enabled terror networks, in the sense that they have been able to expand their attempts to promote their heinous narrative on a global level. Yemen, of course, has witnessed first-hand the danger posed by such recruiting methods, as wannabe jihadists from around the world have flocked to join Al-Qaeda in Yemen.
While a free press is indeed a cornerstone of democracy, it is important to understand that with freedom comes responsibility. If Yemen is to build a strong, free and independent press, it will have to do so by abiding by principles of accountability and transparency as well as journalistic ethics.
All views expressed in this blog post are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, The Majalla magazine.
