Together to stop punishment against newspaper and journalists

While the journalists across the world celebrated their world Press Freedom Day on May 3, Yemeni journalists celebrated the day by getting a new victory when the West Capital Court issued its verdict to cancel a resolution issued by the Minister of Information Hasan al-Lawzi to ban the al-Wasat independent newspaper for violating journalism laws and bylaws as well as for cracking the national unity as was stated by the resolution. 

The court verdict ordered to cancel the resolution and fined the Minister YR 50,000 because his resolution was illegal. The court affirmed that the Ministry and the Minister of Information are not authorized to apply the law and ban newspapers for whatever violations they commit. They says that it is the authority of the judiciary, and only the judiciary, to try papers or journalists if they violated the law. 

Many journalists considered the verdict as a victory for the Yemeni press and for the freedom of press, particularly that the verdict was issued on the World Press Freedom Day, and it proved that the Yemeni journalists and journalism is protected by the law.

This verdict was of double implications as it proved the independency of the judiciary and its fairness in the first place as it indicated that journalists and freedom of press can be protected by the law and by the judiciary system against any malpractices, harassments, or blackmailing that might be practiced by the authorities.

However the woes of the Yemeni journalists are the same woes of journalists across the world, particularly when we read the reports issued by different pro-press freedom organizations about the risks facing journalists. The Paris-based Reporters Without Borders (RWB) released an updated list of the “predators of press freedom” for World Press Freedom Day on Saturday. The group omitted some figures from the predators of press freedom list such as Fidel Castro of Cuba and added new predators topped by Israel Defense Forces. Reporters Without Border said the IDF began to target journalists covering Israeli incursions into Palestinian territory, and a Palestinian cameraman working for Reuters was killed in April by an Israeli tank shell.

The RWB’s Barometer  showed that 9 Journalists killed, 129 Journalists imprisoned, seven  media assistants imprisoned, and 63 cyberdissidents imprisoned  since the beginning of 2008. The highest number of journalists killed in 2008 was in Iraq with four, and one journalist was killed in each of Israel, Afghanistan, Bolivia, Pakistan, and Nepal . 

The highest number of journalists imprisoned was in China, 32 followed by Cuba, 23; and Eritrea, 16.  Meanwhile only seven media assistants were reported imprisoned, two in Eritrea, two in Laos, and one in each of Niger, Lebanon, and Pakistan. The report also stated that 63 cyberdissidents  were imprisoned, 48 of them in China, seven in Vietnam, three in Syria and one in each of Burma, Egypt Jordan, and Libya.

These numbers are scary especially that only four months of 2008 have passed. 

What was most significant was that RWB also recorded violence against journalists within several countries of the European Union (EU) including France, Italy, Denmark, Spain, and North Ireland.   

Violence against journalists was also committed in recent years in Sweden, Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Cyprus.  Although these violence were not committed by the governments they still represent a risk proving that journalists in the less developed countries and even in the most developed and democratic countries are at risk.

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