Taiz Republic in Sana'a!

This week I came across this catastrophic headline: A meeting in Sana’a discusses mechanisms for reviving Al-Jumhuriya newspaper. You might think it sounds normal and positive, in line with the media development terminology that is prevalent these days. But it is not at all. Here are some notes to help you imagine the catastrophe:

1- The meeting in Sana’a of the newspaper whose headquarters and printing presses are in the legitimate areas of Taiz. The meeting was led by an impersonator of the Deputy Minister called Al-Bukhaiti.

2- The Houthi Imamiyya discusses the mechanisms for issuing a newspaper with a name that the Houthis do not hate: Al-Jumhuriya.

3- The authority authorized to issue the newspaper did not pay the bill for the only issue issued by the institution during a period of nearly ten years.

Al-Jumhuriya Press, Printing and Publishing Establishment is one of the most prominent landmarks that promoted the image of Taiz Governorate as a capital of culture. The newspaper was issued daily, in addition to other publications including Al-Thaqafiya newspaper, Match sports newspaper, and Al-Muthaqaf Al-Sagheer magazine, in addition to the supplements affiliated with the establishment, including the “Ideas” and Democracy supplements, and other very important supplements such as the prominent books that Al-Jumhuriya published in Ramadan, thirty books in the holy month.. This is some of what Al-Jumhuriya Establishment published from Taiz to the rest of the country.

Taiz lost this role due to the war launched by the Houthis. Shelling and bullets were the direct punishment that the Republic institution was directly exposed to at the beginning of the war. Since then, the important impact of the cultural message carried by the media has been lost. There is no longer any tangible cultural or media activity in the cultural capital of Yemen that addresses the minds, while the Houthis are actively using the media to brainwash the public with one content and through different means: radio, television, morning assembly, cultural courses even inside prisons, speeches by Abdo al-Houthi. And other means of mobilization.

The legitimacy neglected the pioneering role played by the Republic Institution in the battle of awareness. The newspaper was supposed to resume publication in the first year of the war. Since 2015, years have passed, year after year, and Taiz has had no influential media voice. How we were encouraged by the late attention paid to the Republic Institution in August 2023 when President Rashad Al-Alimi issued Republican Decree No. 13 of 2023 appointing Bilal Al-Tayeb as Chairman of the Republic Institution for Press, Printing and Publishing. Better late than never, as they say. A step in the right direction by the Presidential Council to revive the official print media and return the Republic newspaper to the Taiz street and then to the country.

But how?

The institution building was destroyed and the printing presses were lost. There is no doubt that the government realized the influence of the media, and so we thought that there were certain arrangements to resume publication. By September, Al-Jumhuriya newspaper returned to us with a special issue to celebrate the September 26 Revolution. The editorial board met and prepared the materials inside a hotel, the printing was in Aden. An arduous but enjoyable journey. The surprises that followed the issue did not stop. The newspaper stopped. The President of the Republic, I mean Bilal Al-Tayeb, the head of the Al-Jumhuriya Foundation, felt tired as he searched the corridors of the government and the Presidential Council for the costs of issuing the special issue. I do not know whether he has received the money yet or not.

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Regarding the reality of the media in Yemen, I mean the official media, I commented, in order to appear funny and find someone who smiles, even if it is a compliment, that the government is mobilizing its energy to confront the intense Houthi pumping through a hashtag on the X platform.

I had paved the way for the comment by pointing out that Yemenis, specifically in Houthi-controlled areas, are forced to receive a single message with dangerous content, from Houthi means of communication: almost complete control over the radio, and there the audience is forced to watch the most dangerous, most followed and most influential means, television. They receive the same message through direct contact, via the supervisor, or what are called cultural courses, in addition to forcing them to listen to the same content delivered by the militia leader, Abdo al-Houthi, and mobilizing the audience from different categories, including young people and school students in the morning assembly.

Days after the symposium, I came across this news that talks about the Houthis discussing the mechanisms for reissuing the Al-Jumhuriya newspaper issued by the leading institution in Taiz, the Taiz Republic newspaper issued from Sana’a with an Imami content, and the legitimacy did not hold the rights of the September 2023 issue accountable!