Media Freedom Observatory: 36 media freedom violations in 1st half of 2021
The Media Freedom Observatory reported 36 violation cases against Yemeni journalists and media outlets during the first half of 2021, which varied between abduction, injury, assault, threat and media outlets targeting.
The Observatory warned of the continued targeting of the media outlets, as each of the conflicting parties in Yemen is trying to grip the media in its areas of control. The Southern Transitional Council seized the official media, the Yemeni news agency Saba in Aden, expelled its employees and renamed it as Aden News Agency. And the violations against media in Taiz and Hadhramaut were at an alarming rate.
The violations varied between 7 arrests vviolations, 1 abduction, 1 injury, 7 threats, 4 assaults, 4 trials, 1 case against the official Saba News Agency, and 11 other violations.
In the report, the Houthi group (Ansar Allah) tops the list of media freedom violators with 15 violation out of the total monitored cases, 9 violations committed by parties of the internationally recognized Yemeni government, 2 violations by parties of the Southern Transitional Council, and 6 violations by unknown persons, and 4 violations by influential people. Meanwhile, the Houthi group is still refusing to release 8 journalists, some of whom have been more than five years jailed, and four of them have been sentenced to death.
The media landscape is full of crackdown, violations and death sentences against journalists, in addition to the perpetrators’ feeling that they are unpunished and far from the hand of justice.
The reported violations were 13 violations in Sana’a, 11 violations in Taiz, 4 violations in Aden, 3 violations in Hadramout, 2 violations in each of Ibb and Marib, and one violation in Shabwa governorate.
The Media Freedom Observatory recalls for all parties to immediately stop targeting journalists and social media activists, and stresses the need to hold the perpetrators accountable as crimes do not have a statute of limitations and their perpetrators will not go unpunished.
SEMC’s Media Freedom Observatory in Yemen is a monitoring and information platform publishing whatever related to free opinion and expression in various Yemeni regions professionally and independently, as well as analyzing and advocating journalists’ issues, both locally and internationally.
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