Rights and Freedoms of Southern Journalists and Media Members Syndicate: “Re-declaring the Syndicate is victory for rights and freedoms

SMA NEWS – ADEN THE CAPITAL
Mr. Mansour Saleh, Head of the Rights and Freedoms Department in the Syndicate of Southern Journalists and Media Members, which was announced recently, said that the establishment of the Syndicate of Southern Journalists and Media Members came to restore hope to the profession, which has become one of the goals of the political parties in Yemen, and because due to the targeting of media institutions and journalists.
Mansour Saleh said, in an interview with the Russian agency Sputnik, that the establishment of the union was an urgent need and necessity to serve those working in the press and media sector in the South, in light of the flagrant violation of their professional and functional rights and the systematic destruction of their institutions.
Saleh pointed out that the first conference of the Syndicate was successful by all standards, through the wide participation of southern journalists and media members, with nearly a thousand participants, as well as the Arab and international attention and presence it received.
Saleh added that “this step did not arise out of nowhere, rather, what happened was the re-publication of the Southern Journalists Syndicate, which was confiscated after the occupation of the South in the summer of 1994, and later included in what was called the Yemeni Journalists Syndicate.”
The head of the Syndicate’s Department of Rights and Freedoms stated that his department sets its sights on protecting press rights and guaranteeing the right of expression for all journalists and media members without exception in light of what is determined by the Syndicate’s statute and the honor charter. It will also be one of its tasks to support the rights of southern journalists whose institutions have been destroyed, marginalized and their rights confiscated.
Saleh affirmed that the Syndicate is the only one concerned with defending its members, expressing regret at the situation of the Yemeni Journalists Syndicate, which has turned into a partisan cell and carries out partisan activity hostile to the South and its cause, indicating that the new entity is legitimate and was declared with a license from the Ministry of Social Affairs and Labor, and with the support and blessing of the Vice-Chairman of the Presidential Leadership Council, in which the leadership of the Syndicate also received congratulations from the Prime Minister and the various official political parties.
The Head of the Syndicate revealed that they are preparing requests to restore membership in the Union of Arab Journalists and the International Federation of Journalists, hoping for a speedy response from the two federations.
Saleh denied that the Southern Transitional Council had any guardianship over the union and its work, adding that the Council’s role was within the framework of supporting and mobilizing efforts to convene the founding conference, based on its duties to support efforts to restore and build the institutions of the southern state, but the Syndicate will remain professional and concerned with defending rights and interests of those working in the press and media sector, as well as helping to save and develop media institutions that have been destroyed.
The first conference of southern journalists and media members concluded last Wednesday in the southern capital, Aden, which witnessed the birth of the Southern Journalists and Media Members Syndicate.