Yemeni journalists face increasing danger as conflict worsens

Journalists in Yemen are facing increasing danger as the political and military situation in the country deteriorates.

Despite the launching of airstrikes by a Saudi Arabian-led coalition, and now a threat of a ground offensive from Egypt, the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels continue to wreak havoc, especially in the capital, Sana’a.

Sameer Jubran, editor of the Yemeni newspaper, Al Masdar, spoke yesterday of his paper’s offices being ransacked by a Houthi gang who abducted several staff.

He told US journalist, Andy Carvin, editor-in-chief of the reported.ly website, of the incident. (The staff were later released by their captors).

Jubran, who has fled Yemen after threats, is quoted as saying: “For the past weeks, the staff at the paper have been harassed”.

He also told Carvin that the Houthis had attacked an independent satellite channel, Yemen Shabab, which is located in the same building as Al Masdar.

The Houthis have previously warned Yemeni news outlets not to defame their movement and have been accused of committing a spate of attacks and other abuses against the media.

According to Human Rights Watch (HRW), it documented seven incidents involving attacks on the media between 31 December 2014 and 7 March this year.

And the press freedom watchdog, Reporters Without Borders, reported last week on recent cases of journalists being abducted.

On 5 March, two journalists working for the daily newspaper Akhbar Al Yaoum – Abdelwahed Nejjar and Fouad Zoubayri – were taken away by rebels who ransacked the Ashoumwaa publishing house.

Violence and intimidation is not confined to the Houthis. Last Wednesday (18 March), one of Yemen’s best-known journalistic supporters of the Houthis, Abdulkarim al-Khaiwani, was shot dead by two men on a motorcycle outside his home.

Khaiwani was one of the few journalists in Yemen to report on the long war against the Houthis by the Yemen administration led by President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi (who is now in hiding).

“ The breakdown in security across Yemen has put the country’s media in particular danger”, said HRW’s Joe Stork. “All sides in Yemen should send a clear message to their forces to stop threats and attacks against journalists”.

Sources: reported.ly/The Guardian/New York Times/Human Rights Watch/Reporters Without Borders