Among the worst effects of the events of the Arab Spring that took place in: Tunisia - Libya - Egypt - Yemen - Syria - Sudan, is the tightening of censorship on male and female journalists to the extent that the journalism profession has turned into a curse that haunts its affiliates everywhere.
In the past few years, it was passable for the journalist to hide his identity behind a pseudonym name to be able to write freely to some extent from the limits of permissible speech, but the technological progress and the rapid advance in this aspect, and the accompanying techniques and algorithms, expanded the means of monitoring. It has become possible for the monitoring agencies to track any person who is not connected to the outside environment except through a mobile phone, wherever he is, and view any message he sent, a picture he viewed, or an article in which he stayed 10 minutes longer than others.
In this reality, the slogans that were the dominant feature of the era before the electronic boom have changed, and freedom of the press has turned into a hashtag and a graph analyzing the supposed interaction.
An environment full of troubles
Freedom of the press no longer ends at the limits of expressing an opinion only. The good journalism nowadays is a different reality than just writing an article. It requires diving into details that are not intended to appear and spread, which enables the broad masses to make their right decision at the appropriate moment. This decision may lead a government or ministry to resign or apologize, correct and bear the consequences of what it did. Only here the significance of press freedoms in the world can be measured and what change it can bring about in reality, and it is a task that is certainly difficult and requires a wide degree of freedom and responsibility.
This is confirmed by colleague Bassam Ghabr, in his interview with "Khuyut"; Freedom of the press leads to journalistic quality, and journalistic quality is linked to the extent to which journalistic work is related to the community in which the journalist lives.
Yemeni journalists view World Press Freedom Day as an opportunity to inform the world about how Yemeni journalists work, how challenging are the conditions in which they work and experience in the field, at all levels, in all conflict zones.
According to Ghabr, the Yemeni journalist lives in a complex journalistic environment, in which the margin of freedom has often been narrowed to a minimum for years. Despite this, some Yemeni journalists are trying to write quality reports, investigations, and press articles that embody the meaning of good journalism and are responsible, challenging all obstacles that encounter their work.
Coping with the painful reality
Colleague journalist Safia Mahdi believes that Yemeni journalists have lost much of the space of freedom that was available, for which male and female journalists have fought for many years. She confirmed to "Khuyut" that, despite this, Yemeni journalists are looking for a safe environment in which they can disseminate the media message, and they are trying as much as possible to adapt to the circumstances in which the space for freedom of the press no longer available.
In fact, it is not just a feeling of freedom in a reality in which the statistics issued by the Freedoms Committee of the Yemeni Journalists Syndicate confirm the occurrence of many cases of physical abuse of journalists throughout the Yemeni territory. According to the Yemeni Journalists Syndicate in its report for the first quarter of this year 2023, it documented 20 cases of violations of press freedoms during the period (January 1 - March 30), including: 6 cases of detention of freedom, 7 cases of harsh treatment of detained journalists, two cases of salary suspension, and one case of physical assault, two cases of threat, and one case of confiscation of belongings.
An occasion to remind the world how we fight
For his part, fellow journalist Mohammad Ali Mahroos - information inspector on the "Haqeeqa" platform, told "Khuyut" that Yemeni journalists view World Press Freedom Day as an opportunity to inform the world about how Yemeni journalists work, how challenging are the conditions in which they work and experience in the field, at all levels, in all conflicting areas.
According to Mahroos, a free press embodies the aspiration of the society where you live. However, journalists in Yemen are suffering of the lack of trust between press and societies, and this is what we feel and experience every day as a result of the absence of press freedom and the right to obtain information.
On the other hand, Bassam Ghabr believes that freedom of the press means the existence of a sound professional performance, as the media is the mirror of society, and the lack of an appropriate environment for journalists prevents this mirror from conveying the truth so that the quality of journalistic work and the whole community will be negatively affected.
Moreover, fellow journalist Safia Mahdi added that the press must be the mouthpiece of communities that express their various concerns and presents the suffering and interests of people as well as enhances awareness among society. Certainly, the hostile environment to freedom of the press means that many corruption cases can pass through, and even facts are sometimes employed in different ways that achieves the goals of the influential or authoritarian entities.
