Dear President Saleh
from Jane: Stop messing with the journalists already! via the World Association of Newspaper Editors. (They sent a protest letter to the Yemeni government at my prompting. They were quite nice. I have quite a few organizations to forward it to.)
His Excellency Ali Abdullah Saleh
President of Yemen
c/o Permanent Representative to UN
Email: yemen@un.int
22 February 2005
Your Excellency,
We are writing on behalf of the World Association of Newspapers and the World Editors Forum, which represent 18,000 publications in 100 countries, to xpress our serious concern at the continued imprisonment of journalist Abdulkareem Al-Khaiwani and your government’s apparent campaign to intimidate the independent press.
According to reports, Mr Al-Khaiwani, editor of the opposition weekly Al- Shoura, was jailed in September 2004 and sentenced to one year’s hard labour for a series of articles critical of governmental performance. Serious flaws in the judicial process were also reported, including Mr al-Khaiwani’s not being permitted to respond to the charges nor allowed a lawyer.
At least seven journalists have reportedly received suspended jail sentences since September 2004, including Abdelwahed Hawache and Abdel Jabbar Saad, of the weekly Al Ihiya al Arabi, and Abderrahmane Abdallah and Nabil Sabie, from the weekly Al Tajamaa. All four journalists’ convictions related to their reporting on the Saudi royal family.
Hamid Chahra, editor of the weekly Al Nass, also received a three-month suspended sentence and was fined 50,000 riyals (about 180 Euros) for libel for reporting on political corruption. On 29 December 2004 an editor and a reporter from Al-Hurriya were sentenced to two years in jail for criticising Arab leaders. Other journalists have reportedly been assaulted and two newspapers have been closed down.
We respectfully remind you that jailing of journalists and closing of newspapers constitutes a breach of the right to freedom of expression, which is guaranteed by numerous international conventions, including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Article 19 of the Declaration states: ’Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes the freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media, regardless of frontiers.’ Furthermore, such actions clearly contradict your pledge last June to end prison sentences for press ’crimes’.
We respectfully call on you to do everything possible to ensure that Mr Al- Khaiwani is immediately released from jail and that his and other prison sentences handed down to journalists are immediately rescinded. We urge you to take all necessary steps to fulfil your promise to abolish jail sentences for press offences.
We look forward to hearing from you at your earliest convenience.
Yours sincerely,
Gavin O‚Reilly
Acting President
World Association of Newspapers
George Brock
President
World Editors Forum
cc : Mr Kofi Annan, Secretary-General, United Nations
Mr Koichiro Matsuura, Director-General, UNESCO
