Armies of Liberation

International Press Institute

YT

The Yemeni press is one of the most boisterous in the region and journalists regularly voice criticism of authorities and cover hard-hitting issues. The diversity of the press is threatened, however, by a crackdown in recent years that has seen a number of journalists pay dearly for exercising their watchdog role. The authorities have stepped up their interference with national media by closing down newspapers and harassing journalists. Security forces employ covert and underhanded methods to intimidate the press, and a number of violent attacks have been reported. Attacks on journalists are rarely investigated by the police, meaning that perpetrators are often free from judgment or justice for their crimes.

Punitive actions were taken against four journalists and three newspapers were suspended following the reprinting of cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammad in February.

While the reprinting of the cartoons prompted a harsh response from a number of governments, the Yemeni authorities were particularly repressive in their efforts to silence discussion and debate of the controversy. On 2 February, authorities ordered the suspension of the private weekly Al Hurriya and issued a warrant for editors Abdulkarim Sabra and Yehiya Al-Abed, after the newspaper reprinted the Danish cartoons. The editors were charged under Article 103 of the Press and Publications Law, which prohibits “printing, publishing, circulating or broadcasting…anything which prejudices the Islamic faith…” Violation of this law carries prison terms of up to one year.

On 4 February, the Ministry of Information ordered the closure of two more newspapers, the English-language Yemen Observer and the Arabic Al-Rai Al-Aam. The Yemen Observer had published three of the cartoons with black marks covering potentially offensive areas. The newspaper’s editor-in-chief, Mohamed Al-Asadi, reported concerns for the safety of his staff when the newspaper received dozens of threatening telephone calls, letters and emails following the reprinting of the cartoons.

The authorities intensified their harassment on 13 February when Sabra, Al-Abed and Al-Asadi were arrested and taken into police custody. An arrest warrant had been issued for Kamal Al-Aalafi, editor-in-chief of Al-Rai Al-Aam, but the journalist was not detained as he had gone into hiding following the publication of the cartoons. Sabra, Al-Abed and Al-Asadi were detained for over two weeks in an underground prison cell. They were held with violent offenders and were denied food and water unless they paid for it themselves.

In the months that followed, a smear campaign was launched against all three newspapers by the state-controlled press and by senior religious clerics who attacked the journalists in sermons and public statements. The smear campaign intensified concerns for the safety of the four editors publicly identified with the controversial cartoons. Their trials began on 22 February, but were routinely postponed. The Ministry of Information froze all three printing licenses for three months.

On 26 November, Al-Aalafi was sentenced to one-year in prison and the Al-Rai Al-Aam was subjected to a further six-month suspension. Al-Aalafi was also sentenced to a six-month ban on practicing his profession. He remained free pending an appeal of his case. Each of the three newspapers were tried separately and by year’s end the outcome of the charges against Al-Asadi of the Yemen Observer and Sabra and Al-Abed of Al Hurriya, had not been decided.

A number of violent attacks against journalists this year demonstrated the intensification of intimidation tactics used to silence the Yemeni press. On 11 March, Qaed Al-Tairi, a journalist for the state-run Al-Thawrah, was kidnapped and brutally attacked by assailants. Al-Tairi was in Wadi Thaqban when he was abducted by assailants who drove him to an undisclosed location and beat him, at times using an electric prod. The attackers tried to break the fingers of his writing hand and warned him of further violence against him and his family if he continued writing about local political factions. The attackers told Al-Tairi he would be killed, if he did not temper his investigative reporting.

The attack against Al-Tairi took place shortly after he had made public statements advocating for the right of women to run in elections. The journalist reported his attack to police in Wadi Thaqban and to the Interior Ministry’s prevention against organised crime office. Although several witnesses were able to recall the license plate of the car used in the attack, neither of the assailants has been identified or charged.

The failure of Yemeni authorities to properly investigate attacks on journalists is creating a disturbing culture of impunity. Since 2005, more than a dozen journalists have been attacked, threatened or harassed in retaliation for their critical reporting. The impunity enjoyed by the perpetrators of these attacks has given rise to a climate of fear among the independent press and is a clear indication that President Ali Abdullah Saleh and his government are unwilling to support a safe and secure working environment for the nation’s media.

In April, IPI voiced its strong condemnation of the ongoing campaign of harassment and intimidation against Abed Al-Mahthari, editor-in-chief of the private-weekly Al Deyar, who was forced into hiding after escaping an attack by armed assailants. On 19 April, Al-Mahthari received a call from an unidentified source saying he would be killed that night. The editor averted the attack by having a friend drive his car away from his family home. Two men driving a military-style vehicle with a private license plate followed the car. Al-Mahthari’s friend managed to divert the assailants who later returned to the abandoned car and smashed it apart.

Although several witnesses identified the assailants, they were not arrested and Al-Mahthari was forced to remain in hiding for several weeks. In the weeks leading up to the attack, Al-Mahthari had published several reports on alleged corruption of security forces and state cooperation with arms dealers.

Al Wasat editor-in-chief Jamal Amer continues to be the victim of an ongoing campaign of intimidation. In August 2005, Amer was kidnapped by armed assailants who threatened to kill him, if his newspaper did not stop reporting on government corruption and abuse of power. On 26 April of this year, Al Wasat released a statement voicing concern for the safety of Amer’s family after a group of individuals, led by a political security officers, visited the street of the Amer family home, inquiring about his apartment building, the license plate number of his vehicle and the name of his children’s school. The inquiries took place while Amer was in the United States, taking part in the International Visitors Program.

Also in April, state-controlled media began a smear campaign against Amer in an attempt to discredit him, publishing several articles accusing him of being connected to Israeli intelligence and of acting as an “agent of the West.” The campaign flared up again in November when similar statements were published in the state-run Al Thawrah. The newspaper also attacked Amer for his critical coverage of neighbouring Saudi Arabia, accusing him of working to undermine relations between the two countries. Launched in 2004, Al Wasat is known for its critical coverage of corruption, religious extremism and other sensitive political issues.

Journalist Abdulfatah Al-Hakimi was attacked in the southern city of Aden in early April when two unidentified assailants sprayed him in the face with gas through his open car window. He was hospitalized for over a week following the attack and treated for respiratory problems. The attack took place after Al-Hakimi had written articles in Al Wasat and on the Souhra Web site criticising the government’s handling of the ongoing conflict in Saada, in the north of Yemen. Al-Hakimi had been deputy editor of the state-run 14 October daily newspaper until he was fired in 2005 for writing critically about Yemeni authorities.

National elections on 20 September saw President Saleh re-elected for another seven-year term after facing his first serious challenger in the 28 years since he came to power. Supporters of opposition coalition candidate, Faisal Bin Shamlan, accused the president’s party of rigging the election but international observers said the vote was fair.

The Egyptian Organisation for Human Rights (EOHR) closely monitored election coverage in the Yemeni press and reported “general progress” towards making the election process more democratic. This election was the first time the public media covered the rallies of all presidential candidates and in so doing, aired criticism of the president and his government by opposition leaders. At the same time, the EOHR report stated that, particularly on the major television stations and in state-run newspapers, election coverage was far from balanced and was clearly one-sided in favour of the President.

The lead-up to elections was marred by a series of press freedom violations. Five Web sites were blocked, all of them known for hosting articles or discussion forums on political affairs. The first sites were blocked in late August and interference continued through early September. The bans on all five sites were reversed after the elections.

Freelance journalist, Abdul Hafiz Ahmed Mogab, was arrested on 5 September after he had investigated violations in the Omran directorate elections. He later reported that soldiers threatened to kill him while in detention. Similar threats were issued in telephone calls he received following his release.

Mohamed Sadiq Al-Adeny, a journalist and activist, was sentenced to three years in prison and a fine of approximately US$ 6,200 by an Aden Court on 19 September. Al-Adeny had not been summoned for trial or informed of the dates during which the trial would take place. The charges stemmed from an article published in August in which Al-Adeny criticised the form of democracy practiced by President Saleh and his administration, saying it fostered corruption.

After falling victim to a smear campaign launched by several official newspapers in June, Samia Al-Aghebery, a journalist at the private Al-Wahdawi newspapers, faced a more direct form of harassment on 21 September. An unidentified assailant broke into her home late at night and demanded Al-Aghebery hand over documents she had obtained showing the recount of voting results in some electoral districts. Authorities later threatened her and condemned her coverage of the elections.

A number of journalists were attacked or threatened during their coverage of the elections, and several reported having their equipment confiscated. Editors also reported that several printing presses were shut down in the month leading up to the elections to prevent the publication of opposition newspapers.

On 17 September, security forces in Aden confiscated 1,000 copies of the newspaper Al Tagheir to prevent citizens from reading an article that outlined the views of the Joint Meeting Parties, a coalition of opposition parties, which publish the newspaper. Security forces had not obtained a court order or any other legal justification for the seizure.

In its monitoring of the treatment of the press during the elections, the Cairo-based Arabic Network for Human Rights Information, (HRInfo) concluded that “the government spared no effort to hinder the nascent democratic experiment in Yemen.”

IPI is the global network of editors, media executives and leading journalists, is dedicated to the furtherance and safeguarding of press freedom, the protection of freedom of opinion and expression, the promotion of the free flow of news and information, and the improvement of the practices of journalism. For more information on IPI see: www.freemedia.at