Armies of Liberation

The number of Yemeni journalists taken out by the Yemeni government, one way or another, in the last few years is staggering. The attacks and assaults are getting more brutal and the thresh hold lower with time. The kidnapping of Mohammed al Maqaleh in September really put a chill on independent reporting in Yemen. No one has heard from him yet, and security officials are still maintaining the pretense that they don’t have him in custody. Its mind boggling the way western nations consider violations against journalists a peripheral issue, when so much of their intelligence relies on open source reporting. The red line in Yemen is burning bright. There are certain issues off limits. According to the following article, when News Yemen received the inevitable threats, the proprietor agreed to avoid certain hot topics. But it didn’t help; the ruins of the website are here.

One subject that triggered continuous and multiple attacks on journalists in Yemen is the southern unrest. Al Ayyam, a well established independent paper in the South, was attacked physically, shut down and its copies seized and burned. Another topic is the war and near genocide that has been occurring in Sa’ada for several years now. Abdulkarim al Khawani was first arrested in 2004. He was repeatedly and violently targeted in the ensuing years, culminating in his kidnapping in 2007 and trial in 2008. But al Khaiwani is only the most high profile journalist suffering as a result of his journalist product; there’s many, many more. The Yemeni regime and some in Yemen believe that reporting the facts to society and the world is so detrimental that it rises to subversion. In reality, a free press reduces social tensions and increases social cohesion, but it holds government to account. The Yemeni government is allergic to sunlight for a good many reasons. In related news, al Needa and four other news papers are scheduled for trial in a few weeks, story below the fold.

Yemen Observer: The NewsYemen website was attacked on the day of Eid, November 28th, and as a result, all of the data on the website was lost.

According to NewsYemen’s publisher, Nabil al-Sofi, the attack came from a virus that was sent by the Internet Administration at the Ministry of Telecommunication. Al-Sofi directly accused the government of damaging the website.

“The Internet Administration and the ministry itself are the only government authorities that have to explain what happened. We have received information from the host company of our website that indicated that the virus was sent from the Internet Administration at the Ministry of Telecommunication,” said al-Sofi.

The Yemen Observer attempted to contact the people in charge at the Internet Administration, but no one responded. Al-Sofi said that the ministry still doesn’t realize the key role that websites play in today’s world and that it is impossible to control the news published on the internet. He described the government’s efforts to block certain websites, with the assistance of some Chinese experts, as irrational behavior.

“We received some warnings from different people in the government, but we expressed our willingness to abide by any list they sent us of what not to write about. Nevertheless, we never heard a response, and instead, now we have lost five years of our work,” al-Sofi added.

A number of Yemeni news websites warned against the seriousness of the government’s attack on NewsYemen’s website, which was hacked and had its database destroyed. The attack is considered by many as a serious incident, which damages the reputation of Yemen and endangers the future of the press, particularly the press that uses electronic media. Many of the news websites noted that internet use in Yemen is unsafe.

A google translation of a news article about the impending trials follows:

Mif Rahman was considered by a fugitive from justice five of the editors of the “call”
Wednesday, November 25th, 2009 ã
And her trial on charges of violating the national unity
“National unity” Shop 4 of the editors of the “call” and writer and writer Mif Rahman to the court of the press and publications.
According to a summons issued by the Press received Editor pm Tuesday, November 24th, the court will begin Dec. 14 to consider the lawsuit filed by the government against each of: Sami Ghalib, editor of the “call”, and Abdel Aziz al-Majidi, editor of News, Al-Shafie, sports editor and the newspaper’s correspondent in Shibuya, Fuad Massad, the newspaper’s correspondent in Dali, and Mif Rahman, an author and writer known, on charges of compromising national unity.
The prosecution had questioned Sami Ghalib Abdul Aziz Al-Shafi and Majidi, Fouad Massad during the months of May and June after receiving a note from the Minister of Information request to question the editor and newspaper editors and correspondents and writers about 6 copies of the newspaper said they include incitement to armed insurrection and the exacerbation of regionalism, a violation of unity of Yemen.
And on the author and writer Mif Abdul Rahman, the prosecutor questioned the investigator about what the editor stated in an article published last March. The prosecutor merely made the remarks after being informed by the editor that the writer lived in Aden, and, if prosecutors decided to questioning can be called to appear before it through the newspaper or through the Union of writers and authors in Sana’a or Aden.
Were surprised that the editor in chief prosecutor Abdurrahman Mif considered a fugitive from justice, according to the “mandated to attend” which was received on Tuesday evening.
The Court has already freed last week forced an arrest warrant against Sami Ghalib as a deliberate absence from the previous meeting of the court in the same case was scheduled last Saturday, November 14, although he had not received any request to appear before the court mandated.
The family hopes to “call” that these are not arbitrary actions before hearing of the case indication of the atmosphere of the trial itself. It also expresses its deep regret to try to abuse Mif Professor Abdul Rahman, a writer able and known leader of the Union of writers and authors, by portraying him as a fugitive from justice, although he had not received summonses for the prosecution, whether personal or at the address on the title of the newspaper or on the titles of the Union in Sana’a and Aden.