Yemeni journalist Abdulkarim al-Khaiwanitells the audience about the war currently being waged against journalists in Yemen by the government of President Ali Abdullah Saleh. Yemen is a country, al-Khaiwani explains, where elections are never transparent or fair and the judiciary is far from independent. Al-Khaiwani describes how the democratic experiment has failed: the only remnants of democracy are the slogans that the government uses to attract foreign aid. He also informs the audience that the government has bribed international journalists into portraying Yemen in a positive light—yet another sign of the erosion of democracy in the country.
