Yemen

Twenty-five journalists were held by the Yemeni army as they tried to attend a peace conference in the north of Yemen over the last weekend. According to the Yemen Post, the journalists, from local, national and foreign press had been invited by tribal elders in the region to cover and attend the National Peace Conference. Since 2004, permits have been required for travel to the northern region of...

Yemeni authorities have illegally detained journalists Abdul Ilah Haydar Shae and Kamal Sharaf for the past week. They were arrested in Sanaa on August 16 and 17 at a time when government forces are stepping up a military offensive in the south of the country against militants linked with Al-Qaeda. “The fight against terrorism does not justify the force disappearance of journalists,” Reporters...

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has called on Yemeni authorities to release Abdulelah Hider Shaea, a Yemeni journalist who covers Islamist groups including Al-Qaeda. Armed security forces arrested Shaea on Monday after raiding his family home, according to news reports. Shaea is a reporter for the official Saba News Agency and a frequent commentator and contributor to Al-Jazeera. He is...

There has been a series of fresh threats and acts of intimidation against journalists in Yemen. The political class seems to have no qualms about using violence against journalists who write about corruption or embezzlement. Utterly illegal and arbitrary arrests are becoming commonplace, according to Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF). “The situation is becoming more...

A Yemeni court specialising in press cases on June 8 abandoned eight prosecutions against 33 journalists in line with a previously announced amnesty by President Abdullah Saleh to mark the 20th anniversary of the unification of north and South Yemen. In his June 8 announcement, justice minister Ghazi Chaif Al-Agbari said the decision to suspend legal proceedings concerned journalists prosecuted on...

The Press and Publication Court in Yemen handed down suspended jail sentences to an editor and four reporters on Monday, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). The sentences come just a few days after local media reported that President Ali Abdullah Saleh pardoned all journalists being tried or convicted of press offenses to mark the 20th anniversary of Yemen's unification. On...

On May 2, the Press and Publications Court in Sana’a found Hussein Muhammad al-Leswas, editor of the news website Sana Press, guilty of “undermining national foundations, the revolution, and the republic” and sentenced him to one year in prison, according to local press reports and freelance journalist Samia al-Aghraby. The court also instituted an open-ended reporting ban against al-Leswas...

Two journalists have been freed in Yemen during the past 24 hours. Al-Ayyam editor Hani Bashraheel, who was arrested on January 6, and Moaz Ashhabi, who was sentenced to a year in prison on January 16, were freed on Monday, according to Reporters sans Frontières (RSF). But a harsh crackdown on independent and opposition media continues, with another journalist, Hossein Al-Leswas, getting a one...

Soldiers stormed the building of 14 October, a national media company based in Al-Ma’ala, in the southern Yemen province of Aden, on the evening of April 21 in order to seize the latest issue of Al-Tariq, a daily newspaper it publishes, according to Reporters sans Frontières (RSF). The building remained surrounded until Thursday morning. “What happens in Yemen is hallucinating,” Paris-based RSF...

Yemeni authorities have pressed new charges against Muhammad al-Maqaleh, editor of the opposition Yemeni Socialist Party's news website Aleshteraki, in connection with a 2005 article, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). On Saturday, the Press and Publications Court summoned al-Maqaleh to appear before it on April 18 on charges of “insulting the president,” according to local...