Economic Media Monitors 12 Killing Cases Against Media

Studies & Economic Media Center (SEMC) has monitored 275 violation cases against media freedom in Yemen during 2016, including 12 killing cases against journalists while doing the media coverage for the war that has been going on in Yemen since two years. The media freedom report of 2016, which is issued by the center, revealed that 79 journalists were exposed to abductions and arrests, 32 journalists were injured, 34 journalists were exposed to the threat, dozens of attacks and 13 cases of attempted murder. The president of the Studies & Economic Media Center (SEMC) Mustafa Nasr, in a news conference to launch the report, said that the Yemeni journalists have paid a stiff price as they were struggling to convey the truth and have been subjected to murder, kidnapping and torture because of their profession, calling on all local parties and international organizations concerned with the rights and freedoms to stand against these violations that have transformed the lives of hundred journalists and their families to hell. He stressed that these daily violations committed against journalists are imprescriptible and will not go unpunished. The Houthi group topped the list of the media freedom violators in Yemen, which committed 168 violation cases by 61% from the total number of violations, the unidentified perpetrators came next by committing 42 violation cases and 41 violation cases were committed by the legitimate government, by 14%. Nasr said that the launch of the report in Taiz province carries an important message to all parties and to the world as Taiz witnessed the highest rate of killings against journalists in Yemen during 2016, in which 4 journalists were killed while two journalists were killed in Sana’a and two in Shabwah, and other killing cases were distributed on the provinces of Hajjah, Sa’ada, Al-Jawf and Hodeidah. Mustafa Nasr appealed to all freemen of the world to put pressure on all parties to respect the journalists’ profession and enable them to perform their duty in conveying the truth to the Yemeni audience and the world. He was surprised at the weak attention by the United Nations and local and international human rights organizations toward the issue of Yemeni journalists abducted in the Houthi group’s prisons, who have been tortured, deprived of medicines and prevented from the visiting of their families. The violation cases against the journalists and social media activists in Yemen were not limited to the killing, arrest and torture, but the media environment came under various violations such as looting the media corporations, blocking news websites, adopting the gagging policy and other violations monitored by the report. Studies & Economic Media Center (SEMC) is a high-profile NGO specializing in training in economic and media fields, working towards the enhancement of transparency, good governance, public engagement in decision-making, the creation of professional and free media and empowering youth and women economically.