World Press Freedom Day Participant Profile: Walid al-Saqaf

A speaker at this year’s World Press Freedom Day conference, Walid al-Saqaf’s work closely intertwines with the main themes of this year’s event: “21st Century Media: New Frontiers, New Barriers.”  His website, Yemen Portal, actively promotes access to information, while his anti-censorship software helps to advocate freedom of press throughout the world.

Al-Saqaf began collaborating with IREX in 2004 as a participant in a IREX workshop, Media Development Strategies for the Middle East and North Africa, which brought media professionals from the region together with international donors and media development organizations to discuss strategies to support independent media. He contributed to IREX’s Media Sustainability Index (MSI) reports in the Middle East and North Africa from 2005-2007.  During that last year, he created Yemen Portal  to help bring diverse news and opinions from around the world to Yemen. The website aggregates news, opinions, blogs, and videos from Yemen and around the world. Al-Saqaf is proud that the site does not discriminate between opposition, dissident, government, or independent sites. Because Yemen Portal also published stories that critiqued the Yemeni regime, the government began to censor it in January 2008. In response, al-Saqaf drew from his computer engineering background and developed a software solution called Alkasir, Arabic for “the Circumventor,” which allows users to bypass URL censorship.   This software is now used around the globe, while his website remains blocked in Yemen today.

When asked about the challenges Yemen faces regarding media and censorship, al-Saqaf explains that the government often censors websites, including those that call for the south of Yemen to secede. He sees this as an extension of oppressive practices against traditional newspapers. He sees this oppression of media, both online and traditional, as an ironic and unique characteristic of Yemen, since it is the only multi-party political system in the Gulf region.

Partly because of the uprisings in the Middle East, al-Saqaf's anti-censorship software now has more users than ever.  He comments that the ongoing revolution in Yemen has “resulted in breaking many taboos and crossing many lines with activists in Tagheer Square.  These activists have launched their own programs promoting liberation from dictatorship and the media is covering these events.  If the revolution succeeds, it would tear down all the walls that restricted the media including the restriction of broadcast media. So we are optimistic.”

In his opinion, it is important to celebrate World Press Freedom Day “in order to link it to the liberation movements taking place in the Arab world.   It is imperative to send a strong message of support to all Arab populations seeking to rid themselves of decades-long brutal dictatorship and push for peaceful transitions of power to democratic governments.”

Walid al-Saqaf currently teaches new media and online journalism at the Global Journalism Program at Örebro University in Örebro, Sweden.  Additionally, he is pursuing a PhD studying website censorship in the Arab world.  He will participate in a discussion at World Press Freedom Day 2011 on how journalists and media outlets continue to release news and information in repressive environments.

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About World Press Freedom Day
World Press Freedom Day is celebrated every year on May 3 worldwide. The United Nations Education, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) organizes World Press Freedom Day commemorations to celebrate the fundamental principles of press freedom; to evaluate press freedom, to defend the media from attacks on their independence and to pay tribute to journalists who have lost their lives in the line of duty. In December 1993, the UN General Assembly proclaimed May 3 as World Press Freedom Day. Since then, it has been celebrated each year on May 3, the anniversary of the Declaration of Windhoek, a statement of free press principles as put together by newspaper journalists in Africa during a UNESCO seminar on “Promoting an Independent and Pluralistic African Press” in Windhoek, Namibia in 1991. The declaration calls for free, independent, pluralistic media worldwide characterizing free press as essential to democracy and a fundamental human right.
 
World Press Freedom Day 2011
This year’s World Press Freedom Day conference will take place May 1-3 at the Newseum and National Press Club in Washington DC. It will feature innovative journalists, donors, and researchers who focus on digital media and the new opportunities—and threats—to freedom of expression that lie in the use of new technologies and social networks. The conference is organized jointly by UNESCO, the U.S. Department of State, the Center for International Media Assistance at the National Endowment for Democracy, IREX, and the United Nations Foundation.