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…
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…
Yemeni journalist Mohammed al-Yezidi faces charges, arrest attempts in Hadramout; goes into hiding
Authorities in Hadramout Governorate, Yemen, in late September 2020 threatened to file a number of charges against Yemeni journalist Mohammed al-Yezidi, and he went into hiding after unknown individuals twice tried to abduct or detain him, al-Yezidi told CPJ via messaging app. Authorities in Hadramout—who are aligned with the Yemeni government—repeatedly attempted to arrest al-Yezidi,…
One journalist killed and three injured in Yemen missile attack
Washington, D.C., April 13, 2018–The Committee to Protect Journalists condemned a missile attack that killed a journalist and injured three others in Yemen today. Abdullah al-Qadry, a photographer and camera operator for the privately owned station Belqees TV, died from injuries while covering clashes in Bayda province, according to news reports.
Missile strike kills local Yemeni photographer
New York, January 22, 2018–The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the killing of Yemeni photographer Mohammad al-Qadasi in a missile strike allegedly by the Ansar Allah movement. Al-Qadasi, who worked for the privately owned Belqees TV station, was killed today in the Khayami area of Taiz governorate while on assignment, the channel’s director general Ahmed…
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…
Two abducted Yemeni journalists found dead after air strike
New York, May 29, 2015–The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the kidnapping and killing of two Yemeni TV journalists whose bodies were found this week, days after they had been abducted, in the rubble of a building hit by an air strike.