Yemen / Middle East & North Africa

  

Video: Yemeni cameraman films himself being wounded

New video from The Telegraph shows Yemeni journalist Hassan al-Wadhaf’s footage of being hit in the face by sniper fire during protests in Sana’a. Al-Wadhaf, who is in critical condition, works for the Arabic Media Agency.

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Bullet holes, bottom right, scar the walls of the now-shuttered newspaper Al-Ayyam. (CPJ/Mohamed Abdel Dayem)

A year after siege, Al-Ayyam is sorely missed in Yemen

Today marks the anniversary of the beginning of the multiday siege by Yemeni police and security personnel of the compound that houses the offices of the independent daily Al-Ayyam. During its assault on the headquarters of the critical daily, the government used automatic machine guns, rocket-propelled grenades, and heavy weaponry. The siege and the ensuing…

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Bullet holes, bottom right, at the entrance to the Yemeni newspaper Al-Ayyam are a reminder of a government siege of the outlet. (CPJ)

In Yemen, press freedom worst in 20 years

One opinion was relayed to me repeatedly by numerous journalists, lawyers, and human rights defenders during the week I just spent in Yemen: The crackdown against independent and opposition media in the country has not been this concerted at any time since the unification of the southern and northern halves of the country in 1990.

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Abdulmutallab studied at this Arabic-language school in Sana’a, Yemen, before he tried to blow up a plane in the U.S. (Reuters)

Foreign journalists have privileges locals don’t in Yemen

It is possible that so-called “Christmas Day bomber” Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab came to Yemen for Al-Qaeda terrorist training because it was out of the limelight. Until now, international media has sent in journalists intermittently to cover stories on Somali refugees or the Houthi rebellion in the North, but few foreign journalists are based here and the majority of coverage had come from local…

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Yemeni Foreign Minister Abu Bakr al-Qirbi, left, and British Foreign Secretary David Miliband at last week's conference in London. (Reuters/Ben Stansal)

Saleh uses security as cover to quash press freedom

Ministers and officials representing some 20 Western and Arab governments and international financial institutions declared themselves “friends of Yemen” during last week’s closed-door meeting in London to address threats posed by Al-Qaeda in Yemen, according to news reports. Participants, including U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, offered assurances that the international community, in addition…

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Tawakul Karman, chairwoman of Women Journalists Without Chains. (Oliver Holmes)

Just off Freedom Square in Yemen

Swathed in the traditional black face veil, or niqab, Yemeni women brandish banners with images of disappeared and imprisoned journalists. Every Tuesday, in Yemen’s capital city of Sana’a, Tawakul Karman, chairwoman of Women Journalists Without Chains (WJWC), leads these women into Freedom Square to demonstrate.

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A freed Yemeni editor offers thanks

Yemeni editor Abdel Karim al-Khaiwani walked out of a Sana’a prison today after being granted a presidential pardon. The outspoken journalist was serving a six-year prison term on what were widely seen as retaliatory antistate charges. Al-Khaiwani, whose case was the focus of a CPJ advocacy campaign, offered his gratitude. I thank the Committee to…

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