**Updates IFEX alerts of 8 March and 24 February 2000** (RSF/IFEX) – In a letter to President Ali Abdallah Saleh, RSF protested “the legal action against the opposition weekly ‘Al Ayyam'”. RSF asked the president to “do everything possible to end this campaign against a representative of the opposition press”. The organisation recalled that in […]
**Updates IFEX alerts of 8 March and 24 February 2000**
(RSF/IFEX) – In a letter to President Ali Abdallah Saleh, RSF protested “the legal action against the opposition weekly ‘Al Ayyam'”. RSF asked the president to “do everything possible to end this campaign against a representative of the opposition press”. The organisation recalled that in late February 2000, a court permanently banned Jamal Amer, a journalist with the opposition daily “Al Wahdawi”, from practicing journalism. This unique sentence was finally rescinded following pressure from Yemenite journalists and international press freedom organisations.
The complaint against the newspaper, lodged by the Ministry of Information, concerned articles published in “Al Ayyam” on 26 and 28 February and 4 March which called into question comments made by the city of Aden’s chief of police. According to information collected by RSF, at present, Aden’s chief of police is allegedly leading a campaign against the newspaper, particularly targeting brothers Hisham and Tamam Basharahil, the newspaper’s editors.
