(CPJ/IFEX) – CPJ is strongly protesting the closure of the opposition weekly newspaper “Al-Haq”. **Updates IFEX alert of 12 October 1999** On 7 October 1999, a Yemeni court ordered the one month suspension of “Al-Haq” for allegedly inciting “sectarianism” and “regionalism” in opinion columns published in the newspaper in 1997 and 1999. The offending articles, […]
(CPJ/IFEX) – CPJ is strongly protesting the closure of the opposition weekly
newspaper “Al-Haq”.
**Updates IFEX alert of 12 October 1999**
On 7 October 1999, a Yemeni court ordered the one month suspension of
“Al-Haq” for allegedly inciting “sectarianism” and “regionalism” in opinion
columns published in the newspaper in 1997 and 1999. The offending articles,
which include a May 1999 article written by journalist Hassan Bin Hassainun
titled “In Hadrahmut, Practices Against Unity,” strongly criticized
government administration in the country’s southern provinces. “Al-Haq”‘s
editor in chief Abdel Latif al-Kutbi was also fined 4,000 Yemeni Rials
(approx. US$25) by the court while Hassainun and two other “Al-Haq”
journalists, Ismail al-Riashi and Abdullah Hamadi, were fined 10,000 Rials
(approx. US$100) each.
According to sources at “Al-Haq”, the court ruling was put into effect on 9
October, after the Ministry of Information informed the paper’s printer of
the decision.
“Al-Haq” is the second newspaper closed by the Yemeni courts in less than
one month. On 20 September, CPJ wrote to President Ali Abdullah Saleh
protesting the 16 September appellate court ruling which ordered the
indefinite closure of the opposition weekly “Al-Shoura”. The court’s
decision stemmed from an incident that occurred in February, when two
separate versions of the paper were published under the same name, thus
violating provisions of the press law. However, according to journalists
from “Al-Shoura”, Yemeni security authorities had helped publish the second
version of “Al-Shoura” as a subterfuge (see IFEX alert of 21 September
1999). As of this writing, the paper remains closed.
Recommended Action
Send appeals to the president:
authorities to silence independent and opposition media in Yemen
to
free expression as guaranteed under international law
Human Rights guarantees journalists the right to “seek, receive, and impart
information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers”
the
closure orders against “Al-Haq” and “Al-Shoura” and see to it that they are
allowed to resume publishing without interference from the state
cease all legal and other forms of harassment against journalists in
response to their professional work and that he initiate meaningful
legislative reforms aimed at halting state restrictions on the free
expression of news and opinion in Yemen
Appeals To
His Excellency Ali Abdullah Saleh
President of the Republic of Yemen
c/o His Excellency Ambassador Abdul Wahab al-Hajjri
Embassy of the Republic of Yemen
2600 Virginia Avenue, N.W.
Washington, DC 20037 USA
Fax: +202 337 2017
Please copy appeals to the source if possible.
