Continuing Violence Targeting The Media In Yemen
Suzanne Halal
Geneva, April 1, 2022 (PEC): Press Emblem Campaign (PEC) condemns the continuing violence targeting the media in Yemen. In Yemen, journalists face the dangers of war and air strikes, they are also targeted by the ruling parties and suffer attacks from the Houthis, Al Qaeda, and the government. Since 2014, between 38 and 45 journalists have been killed (identified and including war photographers, media professionals and journalists), according to PEC research. At least 16 journalists are currently in detention/kidnapped.
According to the Human Rights Office of the High Commissionner, the number of abuses and human rights violations against journalists reaches 357, including 45 physical assaults and 184 arbitrary arrests.
Recently, the conflict in Yemen has again appeared in the press, with the Houthi attack Friday, March 25 in Saudi Arabia on several oil locations of Saudi Aramco, and the response of the Kingdom with an air strike in southern Yemen, on Ras Eissa, also on the Hodiedah province, and on military sites in the capital Sana’a, according to Al-Masirah TV, a channel run by the Houthis.
And yet, we rarely hear what is happening in Yemen, the Forgotten War. We dare to ask ourselves why such an oversight? This war, heavy with consequences, human dramas, civil war since 2011 following the Arab Spring revolutions, has become a regional conflict involving Yemen, Iran, Saudi Arabia, the Emirates, Qatar and some international powers including the United States.
Where are the journalists reporting on Yemen ?
All this would lend itself to media coverage of a humanitarian and diplomatic crisis. Where are the journalists who are reporting on this? This war is one of a systematic aggression against journalists, most of whom have left their jobs. Both the Houthis and the government are using methods of aggression against the media on the ground.
PEC is particularly worried about the situation of four journalists detained since 2015 for spying and false reporting: Abdul Khaleq Amran, Tawfiq Al-Mansouri, Harith Hamid and Akram Al- Walidi.
Deprived of care, visits, tortured, without the right to express their position behind bars and very weakened psychologically and physically, these four journalists saw last Sunday their accusation in court and their possible sentence of execution modified thanks to the fact that they did not carry weapons on them and were not affiliated to a political movement. Their sentence was therefore sent to a different court with an exchange of prisoners, without details on their exact fate after this transfer. Recently, the family of journalist Tawfiq Al-Mansoori had appealed to international organizations to press for his immediate release and to save his life after signs of kidney failure in addition to his asthma, shortness of breath, rheumatism and diabetes.
Most recently, on March 23, 2022, local residents found the body of photojournalist Fawaz Al- Wafi. Al-Wafi had worked as a journalist in local institutions and as a photojournalist in Taiz governorate during the years of war. He was stabbed to death by unknown assailants, in “Wadi Al-Qadi” neighborhood of Taiz city, in southern Yemen.
Sixteen journalists have been kidnapped since 2015 in the country, ten of them “on the absurd grounds that they could potentially provide information that could be used by the Arab coalition for its aerial bombardments.” Charged with “collaboration with the enemy,” they were tried by the Houthi Special Criminal Court, a body not recognized by the international community.
Others are being held without charge or trial in provinces controlled by the so-called “legitimate” government, such as Muhammad Ali Al-Moqri or in separatist-controlled areas, such as Saleh Musawa (now released).
Online access to media sites has been blocked by the Houthis who have taken control of the Ministry of Telecommunications. Throughout the country, journalists are monitored and can be arrested for posting on social networks.
The situation has worsened
According to two Yemeni journalists in the country and a foreign journalistwho visits regularly, who remain anonymous for security reasons, the situation has worsened as the danger is not only from acts of war, but from harassment, arrests, enforced disappearances, killings, physical attacks, psychological attacks, restrictions on livelihoods, exclusions from work, bans on visits by imprisoned journalists, and conflicting authorities that create difficulties in practicing the profession. This includes the difficulty for the press to receive protective tools.
Some foreign journalists continue to visit and cover the conflict, often through press trips organized particularly with the Sana’a Center. The New York Times, BBC and AFP have made separate trips. However, their presence is rare and short-lived, and foreign media delegations rarely reach Houthi-controlled areas, as entry permits come from the coalition and pass through the Houthi-controlled city of Aden. However, there are delegations of journalists belonging to Saudi and Emirati media that arrive in the governorates of Aden, Marib, Hadramout, because the coalition is the one that grants them the permits. There is also the problem of affiliation of many journalists to local militias. The information relayed in the newspapers is therefore very unreliable.
According to the three journalists interviewed by PEC, there is an apparent lack of training in covering hostile events and a discussion with the authorities to press for the protection of journalists and to promote their consideration as members of the community rather than enemies. There is also a need for physical and psychological protection of journalists, which is even more necessary since the suspension of the Yemeni Journalists’ Union and the division of the Ministry of Information and its institutions.
Camera, pen and smartphones more dangerous than weapons
«The camera and the pen have become more dangerous than weapons for all sides. The conflict in Yemen has pushed dozens of journalists, and I know many of them, into other occupations such as selling qat, collecting plastic bottles in the streets, carrying stones, farming and other occupations that make their living. Some of them have suffered heart attacks because of their financial situation and lack of access to food», said one journalist interviewed by PEC.
The whole of Yemen, from one end to the other, is dangerous for journalists. When you travel from one governorate to another, the checkpoints search the phones of travelers, including journalists, and they have programs that restore everything that has been deleted, and many have been arrested because of this. Smartphones are the first enemy of the journalist through it, they rank you among all the parties to the conflict you are affiliated with, imprisoned or executed under the charge of treason, even if you joined an anti-WhatsApp group, you don’t even know who joined it… and no one will believe that you didn’t know about it, he added.
Smartphones have involved reporters, and many have resorted to old non-smartphones, deleted many apps because friend inquiry messages are an unintentional trap, while some resort to deleting any direct conversation after talking to their friend about any topic.
Some of their Yemeni colleagues abroad also report psychological pressure and threats from outside Yemen.
Employees of the Yemen Digital Media agency, which provides media services to television stations, were surprised by security guards and representatives of the Sana’a Specialized Criminal Court of First Instance who arrived at the company’s building with a judicial seizure notice that was undated and not marked with a name or seal.
According to Media Landscapes, a joint venture between the Centre for European Journalism and the Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and Science, increased shortages of gasoline, electricity, and printing paper have made it more difficult to publish and distribute newspapers. Some websites have had to close down. Journalists’ salaries are very low and this reduces the possibility of journalists being able to make a living from their work. Some news bureaus have had to move (after facing direct attacks), or close permanently, especially independent media.
Some names of journalists killed: Awab al-Zubiry; Mubarak al-Abadi from Nabaa media Foundation; freelance Mohammed Ghalib al-Majidi; Ahmed al-Shaibani from Yemen News; Hashim al-Hamran from al-Masirah TV; freelance Almigdad Mojalli; Bilal Sharaf al-Deen from al Masirah TV; Abdullah Qabil from Yemen Youth TV; Youssef al-Ayzari from Suhai TV; Mohamed Shamsan from Yemen Today; Khaled al-Washli from al-Masirah TV; freelance Luke Somers (the only American listed); Hassan al-Wadhaf from Arabic Media Agency; Jamal al- Sharabi from Al-Masdar; Muhammad al-Rabou’e from Al-Qahira.
(Suzanne Halal is the PEC Representative for the Middle East)