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Source: The Egyptian Organization for Human Rights (EOHR), Cairo
Media Freedom Hampered During Yemeni Presidential Elections, But Democratic Progress Recorded
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6/11/2006
Media freedom observers recorded a number of restrictions placed on the media in Yemen during the presidential elections on 20 September 2006, despite general progress towards making the election process more democratic, say media freedom observers.
One of the most important elements to guarantee fair and democratic elections is to have powerful, fair and neutral media coverage of the electoral process. Freedom of media during elections is an indicator of the ability of voters to choose freely among different nominees and a way to express different opinions and views concerning the candidates. According to Mohamed Assadi of the "Yemen Mirror" (www.yemenmirror.com/), media in Yemen have a special classification, different from others in the Gulf region. There is the official media, which are the state-owned and run TV, radio and newspapers. There are political or partisan newspapers which are owned and run by political parties (the ruling party and opposition), and there are also privately-owned newspapers.
Assadi believes that the recent election was different from any previous ones. The public media - TV, radio and major dailies - covered the rallies of all presidential candidates and were under direct supervision of the Supreme Commission for Election and Referendum (SCER). "To have an opposition leader criticise the government and the President himself on public TV and radio is a very advanced and progressive step forward," says Assadi.
Yet observers, including Assadi, recorded different violations of media freedom, including Internet censorship, biased media coverage, and government interference with media.
Freedom of expression during the electoral process
There were five candidates running in the presidential elections this year in Yemen, including the incumbent, President Ali Abdullah Saleh. Article 50 of the General Elections and Referendum Law No. 13 of 2001 states that "it shall not be considered election campaigning if and when official media outlets broadcast/publish information on the President of the Republic's tasks and daily activities, if he is one of the candidates in the presidential elections." This provision was breached in some ways. In a report issued by the Arab World Elections Monitor, some negative aspects were monitored, such as: electoral campaigning continued on the day of elections in a subjective way; security forces pressured some candidates to withdraw from the elections in favor of the ruling party; many problems were realised in the electoral registry which deprived many from voting; lack of electoral awareness and procedures among voters. The electoral process was monitored by over 45,000 watchdogs representing political parties and civil society. It is worth noting that most of the monitoring associations are under supervision of political parties which affected the neutrality of their reports.
According to a report by the Arabic Human Rights Information Network (HRinfo), some websites were blocked by the Yemeni government during the electoral process, such as Mostakela Forum (www.mostakela.com), and Peoples Press (www.nasspress.com), which frequently criticized the government. Another site which was blocked without a clear reason is Hewar Forum (www.hewarye.com), despite posting supporting opinions to the ruling party, which proves the irrationality of the blocking decisions. There were also two other sites that were blocked: the Yemen Council (www.al-yemen.org) and Sound of Yemen (www.yemen-sound.com) but all these sites are available now that the elections are over.
Media performance during the elections
During the campaign and the electoral process, the performance of the media was characterised by some negative features. According to a report issued by the Human Rights Information and Training Center (HRITC) in cooperation with International Media Support (IMS), the TV stations' performance during elections campaign took a unilateral attitude. Two TV channels did not broadcast debate programs to discuss candidates' programs during the time allocated for covering the elections campaign, while other debate programs airing at other times were one-sided and reflected the official viewpoint. TV channels acted inequitably in providing technical facilities, for example, to the two election rallies of the incumbent President Saleh in Taiz and Ibb on 11 and 12 August were recorded using helicopters, unlike other candidates' rallies.
HRITC also reports that coverage of President Saleh's rallies in Taiz, Ibb and Lahej and other governorates were accompanied with songs used in his campaigning. Sana'a and Aden Radio Stations were also biased towards the PGC candidate, and broadcast his rallies during prime time, followed by the National Opposition candidate's rallies. Meanwhile, the Joint Meeting Party (JMP) candidate's rallies were covered at late hours at about midnight. Also, in their programs, particularly Sana'a Radio's program "Talk of the hour" invited guests who are generally biased to the PGC candidate.
The state-owned newspapers performance also had some negative features, as it was noticed that the news articles published by the official newspapers on the President's rallies were identical. This could be attributed to the fact that they all used the same source: Saba News Agency. Also, the news broadcast by the 22 May channel were identical to ones by the satellite channel as well as ones by Sana'a and Aden radio stations. Official newspapers also re-published President Saleh's interview with Al-Jazeera channel on "Bela Hidoud" (Without Borders) program broadcast on 13 September 2006, which is a clear violation of article 41 of the Presidential Elections Campaign Manual published by the Supreme Elections and Referendum Commission in 2006.
Assadi of the "Yemen Mirror" reported that five new newspapers were licensed under strange names and working in the field despite the fact that the issuing of new newspaper licenses has been suspended since last year. Assadi believes that these newspapers were granted licenses by the Ministry of Information according to instructions by senior officials in the country. Their role is to attack independent as well as partisan journalists.
Background
The 2006 elections are the sixth since the unification of Yemen in 1990, but it is believed that this year's elections constituted a real challenge for President Saleh and the democratic process in Yemen. There were five nominees running for the presidency. The main opponent faced by President Saleh's ruling party, the General Public Conference, was Faisal Ibn Shamlan, who represented the Joint Meeting Party (Allequaa) - a coalition of parties such as the Socialist Party, Tagamoaa Party (Islamist), Nasserite Party, Alhaque , and Baath Party.
The Yemeni presidential elections in 2006 were perceived by some Yemeni political experts as a unique event in the Arab world, however there are still steps needed to be taken in order to achieve real democracy. President Saleh was re-elected with 77 % of votes.
This report has been prepared with the help of IFEX regional partners and has been forwarded to the IFEX Clearing House by the Egyptian Organization for Human Rights (EOHR), an IFEX member. For more information please contact EOHR:
8/10 Mathaf El Manyal Street
Manyal Al Roda
Cairo, Egypt
Tel: +20-(2)-3636811 +20-(2)-3620467
Fax: +20-(2)-3621613
Email: eohr@link.net
URL: http://www.eohr.org
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