Yemen / Middle East & North Africa

  

In Middle East and North Africa, a drop in attacks on journalists belies dire state of press freedom

The Middle East and North Africa region has long been especially dangerous for journalists. The Committee to Protect Journalists’ research has found that one out of every three reporters killed worldwide in retaliation for their work since 1992 — 477 out of 1,422, or 33.5% – were located in the region. That proportion rose to…

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A crowd of men reach up to support a coffin draped in a blanket.

Yemen’s non-state judicial systems spell death, torture for journalists

On December 1, four journalists were on death row in the Yemeni capital, Sanaa, for the crime of spreading false news. Before they were detained in 2015, Abdulkhaleq Amran, Akram al-Waleedi, Hareth Hameed, and Tawfiq al-Mansouri worked for various outlets, including the independent Al-Masdar newspaper and outlets associated with al-Islah, one of the parties in…

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A ‘slow death’ for Yemen’s media: the country’s journalists report through displacement and exile

March 2018 was a low point for Akhbar al-Youm, an independent daily newspaper in Yemen. Three weeks after the newspaper’s Aden office was set ablaze by unidentified arsonists, seven of its employees were abducted for a month by forces under the secessionist Southern Transitional Council, which controls the southern port city. The attacks forced the publication to relocate from Aden to…

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Ten years after the Arab Spring, the region’s media faces grave threats. Here are the top press freedom trends

In early February 2011, Alaa Abdelfattah was in Egypt’s Tahrir Square, documenting and participating in the nascent pro-democracy uprising that would topple the government and transform the country and the region. Today, he is in prison on anti-state and false news charges, which his family believes are partly retaliatory for his work. Abdelfattah is one of…

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A Yemeni flashes a victory sign during protests in Aden on September 5. Yemeni journalists covering the militias and coalition forces vying for power in the country say they face threats from all sides. (AFP/Saleh al-Obeidi)

Journalists in Yemen under attack from all sides as rival forces crack down on critics

In its report released late last month, the U.N. Human Rights Council found that all groups involved in the Yemen conflict–from the government-controlled south, with its militias propped up by the UAE-led coalition and loyal to the secessionist Southern Transitional Council, and areas held by the rebel Ansar Allah or Houthi movement–were responsible for widespread…

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Venus symbols are seen during an event where UN Women and rights groups launched a campaign against violence towards women as International Women's Day approaches, in Mexico City, Mexico in March 2018. CPJ has documented threats faced by women journalists across the globe. (Reuters/Henry Romero)

On International Women’s Day, CPJ looks at threats women journalists face

From imprisonment, sexual violence, cyber harassment, and even death, CPJ has documented threats faced by women journalists across the globe.

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Tribesmen loyal to the Houthi movement hold their weapons as they attend a gathering to mark 1,000 days of the Saudi-led military intervention in the Yemeni conflict, in Sanaa, Yemen December 21, 2017. (Reuters/Mohamed al-Sayaghi)

In Houthi-controlled Yemen, silence, exile, or detention; at least 13 journalists held

Torture. Denial of medical care. Repeated interrogations and accusations of collaborating with enemies: Yemeni journalist Youssef Ajlan’s story of his detention, which lasted over a year, hews closely to those of many journalists imprisoned for their work.

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A worker cleans a EU flag in Berlin on May 19, 2017. The EU parliament is due to vote on October 12 on a proposed review mechanism of surveillance tool exports. (AFP/John MacDougall)

Press at risk as EU-based companies export surveillance software to hostile regimes

In August, Danish Foreign Minister Anders Samuelsen told the daily newspaper Information that the government had authorized sales of online surveillance software to several Middle Eastern countries. While acknowledging the potential for human rights violations that could result from the use of these tools, the minister said that Denmark has an interest in the fight…

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Houthis fighters secure a road between Hodeidah and Sanaa in Yemen on April 19, 2017. Journalists have been threatened and attacked in areas controlled by the Houthis. (AP/Hani Mohammed)

Collapse of state institutions leaves Yemeni journalists vulnerable

A journalist dies mysteriously in Yemen after receiving threats because of his work, and the resulting autopsy raises more questions than answers. A columnist in the same country is sentenced to death on espionage charges in an opaque trial.

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Shiite rebels known as Houthis rally against Saudi-led airstrikes in Sanaa, Yemen, on August 11. (AP/Hani Mohammed)

Yemeni journalists: ‘Our mouths are gagged’

In March 2014, Sana’a University media student Hisham al-Yousifi stood next to Dar al-Hajar, a royal palace built on the precipice of a rock formation just outside the capital, and announced to the video camera, “Here, there are a lot of tourists!” But there were no tourists, just his friends barely failing to hold back…

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