(RSF/IFEX) – Reporters Without Borders has condemned a climate of intimidation towards the press in Yemen in which closures of newspapers, summonses for interrogation, prison sentences and physical attacks against journalists have become routine and are making it very difficult for the news media to operate freely. “We are extremely worried by the recent convictions […]
(RSF/IFEX) – Reporters Without Borders has condemned a climate of intimidation towards the press in Yemen in which closures of newspapers, summonses for interrogation, prison sentences and physical attacks against journalists have become routine and are making it very difficult for the news media to operate freely.
“We are extremely worried by the recent convictions of journalists who are known for being both professional and outspoken,” the press freedom organisation said. “It is essential that the laws governing the press in Yemen are amended. President Ali Abdallah Saleh has still not kept his promises to decriminalize press offences.”
On 19 November 2005, a high level court in the capital, Sanaa, fined the opposition newspaper “Al Thawra” 950,000 rials (approx. 4,400 euros) and banned two of its journalists, Fekri Kassem and Salah El Din Al Dakkak, from being published for six months. The newspaper was also ordered to pay 500,000 rials (approx. 2,300 euros) and publish apologies to the plaintiff, Mohamed Taher Naji, the treasurer of the city of Taghz.
On 27 November, another Sanaa court ordered the suspension of the opposition newspaper “Tagammu” for “sectarianism” and “attacking Islam’s image” in a September 2004 article likening the current political situation to the political turmoil in 1968. Editor Abdul Rahman Abdallah and reporter Abdul Rahma Saeed, who wrote the article, were each fined 220 euros and were banned from being published for a year.
Many journalists have also been physically attacked or threatened in recent months for investigating corruption or other sensitive issues affecting President Saleh or those close to him.
Opposition journalist Nabil Sabaie was attacked on 12 November in Sanaa by a group of armed men who roughed him up and stabbed him in both shoulders.
Moujib Soueileh, a cameraman with the pan-Arab satellite news station Al-Arabiya, was harassed and beaten by police in Sanaa on 20 October as he was covering a demonstration by workers at a textile plant demanding payment of wage arrears.
Khaled El Hammadi, a correspondent for the London-based Arabic-language daily “Al-Quds el Arabi”, was arrested by Yemeni police on 31 August and held for more than 30 hours after investigating the circumstances in which several military planes crashed in Yemen.
Jamal Amer, editor of the independent weekly “Al-Wassat”, was kidnapped and beaten by armed men on the night of 22 August.
Munif Damesh, a fixer working for foreign journalists, and Naif Damesh, a driver, were arrested on 3 April and detained for more than a month without being allowed to contact their families or a lawyer.
The Union of Yemeni Journalists has on several occasions voiced its concern about these press freedom violations. On 27 November, the union’s secretary-general, Hafez El-Bekhari, resigned in a gesture of protest towards the authorities and certain political parties which, he said, “tend to marginalise the role of the union.”
