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.
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
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.
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.