al-Asadi still in Jail
The unlikely hero, Yemeni Editor Mohammed al-Asadi, has an interview with Newsweek:
You mean to say the government has a prosecutor dedicated to the press, and that prosecutor has a dedicated jail?
That is one of the characteristics of the Yemeni government, putting journalists in jail to stop us from telling the truth to the public.
Your newspaper has been closely identified with the government, so is this the result of some sort of factional dispute within it?
The Yemen Observer has an independent line, and while it’s true that our CEO is close to the government, when he hired me he granted me complete editorial independence. He had no say over what I published.
The article as a whole discussed Islam and particularly the Prophet in reverential tones. So why the government reaction?
Most of these extremists don’t read English, they just saw the pictures. And the article was accompanied by an editorial, saying the cartoons were terrible, but we should accept the apologies of the newspaper that published them and move on, not continue running through the streets. That’s what really angered the [government] hard-liners. Even religious scholars have supported us: it’s the intention behind the publication, not just the publication.
