Corruption Triggers Media Repression in Yemen

The level of media repression may be a determining factor in whether Yemen avoids the threat of state failure. The Yemeni government suffers from entrenched corruption in nearly every office, a legacy of traditional patron/client relationships. Demands for transparency threaten the substantial patrimonial networks associated with access to the government budget.

More than 20% of state funds go to the administrative expenses of the Presidency and Parliament. A quarter of the Yemeni budget is allocated to the military as a line item. Another third of the budget is spent on diesel subsidies. Beyond the misappropriation of state funds, members of the administration also spin off criminal enterprises using advantages gained from their official positions.

In Yemen’s pervasively corrupt environment, investigative reporting is challenging the conditions that undermine efforts at wider economic and political reform.

Internet Censorship in Yemen

The Internet has taken root in Yemen, functioning as it does everywhere, as a social network, as an electronic pamphleteer and as a purveyor of facts and ideas. The Yemeni government is intimidated by the public’s internet use and the resulting social and political progress. Consequently the Yemeni state dramatically increased internet censorship in the last months, as it is prone to do in times of crisis and negative publicity.

Yemen’s Illogical Logic of Repression

“When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty,” Thomas Jefferson.

As Yemenis struggle toward freedom from tyranny, the Yemeni government uses all means at its disposal to thwart the growing democracy movement. The regime simultaneously creates a façade of reform for the benefit of the western donors, often with depressingly good results.

Leading Yemeni Journalist Abdulkarim al-Khaiwani Arrested

(Arabic, Al-Thawry pdf)

In 2004, prominent Yemeni journalist Abdulkarim al-Khaiwani wrote from jail, “I believe in democracy, freedom, equality and rights and am willing to suffer for their sake simply because I do not wish my children to suffer dictatorship and I will strive to provide them a better future.”

An Attack on All

Much discussion lately has been centered on what limits a responsible media should place on itself. At the other end of the spectrum remains the burning issue of censorship, propaganda and governmental limitations on the flow of information to the public. For some years the reformist posture of the Yemeni regime of Ali Abdullah Saleh had credibility internationally because of the existence of a lively Yemeni press. One reason confidence in Saleh’s commitment to democratization has diminished is a prolonged and systematic assault on Yemeni journalists, as an informative press is the bedrock of a government run by the people.

The Battle For Truth in the Age of Terror

A United Nations Development Program report recently said that Yemen is “infested with corruption” throughout all sectors including corruption monitoring agencies, and the Yemeni government lacks an effective system of exposing and checking corruption. Rampant corruption is a logical consequence of the concentration of power in Yemen: Ali Abdullah Saleh is the president, the head of the military, the chief judicial officer, the head of the ruling party, and essentially controls the parliament and the official media. He has been in power for 27 years.

The Free Press and Democracy

It is a telling statement about the rigors of political evolution that the Sana’a Regional Democracy Conference prohibited journalists and some NGOs from attendance, when the foundation and substance of democracy is honest public debate among a well informed electorate.

As noted by Stamford University, since 1974 more than 60 countries in Eastern Europe, Southern Europe, Latin America, Asia and Africa have made transitions from authoritarian regimes to some form of democracy. Many around the Arab world are calling for some reform or democratization in the Middle East.