are still affecting the European economy and, therefore, the French
authorities have welcomed this shift in Saudis policies. They are
actually trying to take the maximum advantage of this situation,
especially through the sale of military equipment to Saudi Arabia.
The Almasirah TV Channel started its broadcasting almost one year
before the Saudi invasion to Yemen from Dahieh in Beirut. As Like AlManar TV Channel, which acts as the propaganda arm of the Lebanese
Hezbollah, the Almasirah TV Channel is supposed to play the same role
for the Yemens Ansarollah. Since Arabic and Western TV channels
(who have formed a coalition headed by Saudi Arabia) try to distort the
Yemens political and military developments, it was necessary for the
Yemeni revolutionary forces to establish Almasirah TV Channel in order
to convey their message to the world community, especially the Arab
nations. Saudi Arabias efforts for stopping the broadcast of Almasirah
TV Channel on Nilesat and Eutelsat is and indication of this channels
success in carrying out its mission.
However, stopping the broadcast of Almasirahs programs on Nilesat
and Eutelsat has had little effects on the transmission of the message of
the Yemeni revolution, because revolutionary committees led by
Ansarallah resumed the broadcasting of Almasirah on the Russian
Express Satellite. Frances cooperation with Saudi Arabia in this regard
once again undermined the arguments of French authorities over their
abidance by democratic tenets and commitment to the principles of
human rights, free access to information, and freedom of expression. As
a matter of fact, free access to news and information is so vital for
democracy that some observers have described it as the oxygen for
democracy.
Legal Aspects
Almasirah is one of the few instruments for the Yemeni people to
convey their message to the world and inform the global community of
the Saudi criminal invasion to their country. There is no doubt that
preventing the Almasirah from going on air on Eutelsat is contradictory
to all human rights principles and regulations. Article 19 of the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights has actually stipulated that
Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right
includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek,
receive and impart information and ideas through any media and
regardless of frontiers.
Based on the principles governing over the broadcast of satellite
programs which have been incorporated in international conventions and
documents, utilization of the earths outer atmospheric space should be
based on international law and everyone should be entitled to utilize the
atmosphere as freely and as equally as possible
Based on the principle of freedom of communication and information in
the international law, which is a universally acknowledged principle, no
country is allowed to deny the rights of another country that is a member
of conventions related to the peaceful utilization of the atmospheric
space. This argument highlights the importance and necessity of the
access of nations to the free current of information. Accordingly, this is
the right of nations to get informed of the realities of Yemeni
developments and the Saudi invasion to this country so that the global
community is not deceived by the distorted news from media in Saudi
Arabia and Saudi allies in the Arab and Western world.