On Tuesday, February 22, a roadmap for media development in Yemen was announced during the final meeting of the Yemeni media coordination group, organized by the Studies & Economic Media Center (SEMC) in partnership with the UNESCO office to the Gulf States and Yemen.
This activity was part of a larger project launched by UNESCO in January 2021, to support media organizations in Yemen with the overall objective to promote coordinated actions among media development initiatives to reinforce and diversify the media landscape in Yemen.
As a first step, UNESCO, in partnership with RNW Media, conducted a research to identify media development technical entities working in the field of media development in Yemen, resulting in the creation of an interactive digital map. Building on this initial research, UNESCO, together with the Studies and Economic Media Center, formed a coordination group gathering 42 media organizations in Yemen, to promote joint and coordinated actions reinforcing Freedom of Expression online/offline and access to information.
During the past five months, the representatives of the targeted organizations discussed five prior topics for Yemeni media to work on in the future, namely media freedom and challenges of access to information, war and the media role in peace building, the role of investigative journalism in combating disinformation and misinformation, the occupational safety of journalists, and women in the media and the level of their presence in decision-making positions. Through focused discussions, video conferences and WhatsApp groups, the participants have developed a matrix of recommendations for each topic, which have been synthetized into a roadmap for media in Yemen.
UNESCO believes that a strong and professional media environment is a key element to promote stability and peace. This coordination group provided support in identifying interventions priorities in Yemen. It is important that the roadmap developed as an outcome of the consultations guide better coordinated actions on the ground. It also should serve to explore synergies, and work collaboratively to better support media development and peace in Yemen.
The coordination group has outlined actions for freedom of expression in Yemen, access to information, and media development issues in the country. Therefore, we hope this final meeting will be a starting point for many new projects and initiatives, to support more Yemeni media institutions.
The roadmap aims to set priorities for the media in Yemen and to work jointly under a specific plan with clear objectives for developing Yemeni media, in a manner that ensures delivering impartial information. SEMC will work, during the next phase, as a coordinator between local media organizations and funding international organizations, in order to reach what we planned together in the previous two phases.
This initiative was supported by the Multi-Donor Programme for Freedom of Expression and Safety of Journalists (MDP).
About the Multi-Donor Programme for Freedom of Expression and Safety of Journalists (MDP)
The MDP serves to further strengthen UNESCO’s work at a global, regional, and national levels, by channeling funds towards emerging priorities and the most pressing needs to achieve its mandate on freedom of expression. It enables UNESCO’s Communication and Information Sector to address complex issues through the design and implementation of holistic medium and long-term interventions at national, regional and global levels. The clear advantage of this mechanism is that it allows UNESCO and its partners to achieve greater impact and sustainability, whilst reducing fragmentation of activities in the same field.
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