Tawakkol Karman: a courageous and controversial campaigner

October 7th, 2011

Iona Craig on the the Yemeni Nobel Peace Prize winner
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Yemen: Journalists in further attacks

September 8th, 2011

Two Yemeni journalists were attacked by armed men on Monday.  Abdul al-Hafeez al-Hatami from news website Al-Sahwa Net and Raafat al-Amiri, cameraman for Suhail TV, an opposition news station, were covering the rising prices of oil in the western province of Hobeidah.  The journalists were attacked by a group of men in Al-Duha district, who confiscated their camera, which was only returned after intervention and negotiations from a local tribe. This attack follows a similar attack on a BBC journalist in August, and previous attacks on Al-Sahwa Net and Suhail TV, highlighting the increasing danger for journalists in Yemen.

Yemen: Attacks on journalists continue

August 22nd, 2011

Suhail TV cameraman Ahmad Firas was arrested by soldiers from Daylami airbase in Yemen on the afternoon of 12 August as he was driving towards Sanaa with his wife and children, who were released a few hours later. The soldiers, who seized his equipment, gave no reason for his arrest and are still holding him. In another case, several unidentified men tried to stab Mohamed Ayda, the Sanaa bureau chief of the US Arabic-language TV station Al-Hurra, on 10 August.

Yemen: Copies of newspaper confiscated

August 12th, 2011

Yemeni security forces confiscated copies of Ahdath al-Madina, a local independent newspaper, on 7 August. Security forces seized the paper from newsstands in order to stop its distribution on the national level.  Last April, security forces confiscated and publicly burned issues of the same paper, because of material deemed to be “detrimental to the president [Ali Abdullah Saleh]“. Yemen has had anti-regime protests since February. According to the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI), security forces regularly remove newspapers in order to suppress the public’s growing frustrations with President Saleh.  

Journalist released, deported from Yemen

July 6th, 2011

New Zealand journalist Glen Johnson has been released from custody in Yemen and was deported to Dubai earlier today, Index on Censorship has learned. Johnson, 28, was arrested in southern Yemen in late June. Yemen ranks at 170 out of 178 countries in the Reporters Without Borders 2010 Press Freedom Index.

Kiwi journalist in Yemen prison

June 30th, 2011

The arrest and detention of a Kiwi journalist lays bare the risks and calculations taken by foreign journalists in Yemen. Iona Craig reports from Sana’a

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Yemen: Journalists targeted as clashes continues

June 2nd, 2011

Journalists and protesters in Sana’a are facing gunfire and sniper attacks as fighting in Yemen’s capital city intensifies. Private satellite broadcasting station, Suhail TV, was attacked by mortar fire earlier this week. Cameras, archives and computers were severely damaged and two camera operators were injured. One Suhail TV employee has claimed that a sympathetic senior military officer warned him that snipers have been ordered to kill employees of the station on sight. Clashes between anti-government protesters and troops loyal to President Ali Abdullah Saleh has claimed over 200 lives this week, according to reports.

Security forces target journalists in Yemen

April 27th, 2011

Yemeni authorities detained the editor of Al-Shahid at a checkpoint on 25 April. Abdel Aziz al-Majidi was prevented from entering the Taiz province to report on the region. In a separate incident on the same day, security forces encircled the house of Mohammed al-Louzi, a reporter for the daily Akhbar al-Youm. Al-Louzi has been highly critical of the Yemeni government’s response to protests in the country.