Yemen Clamps Down on Media Over South Clashes
Media Line News Agency
May 09, 2009
Yemen is taking tough action against several newspapers in the country in order to curb coverage of clashes between military forces and opposition groups in the south.
Six weekly newspapers have been closed down by the Yemeni authorities over the past week after recently publishing articles criticizing the government´s handling of riots in the south.
On Monday, authorities besieged the Aden offices of the Al-Ayyam daily, which has been reporting the conflict. Authorities also confiscated 15,500 copies of the newspaper and prevented thousands of other copies from being distributed to remote selling points.
"This is happening because of our continuous coverage during the month of April of the conflict in the south," the newspaper´s foreign desk editor Bashraheel Bashraheel told The Media Line (TML).
Al-Ayyam uses a lot of photos in its news coverage, an important factor in a country where half the population cannot read or write. Bashraheel said they distribute 70,000 copies across the country, controlling over 72 percent of the selling market.
"Our coverage of the conflict in the south is seen as threatening to the ruling elite, as it documents the brutal force used in this conflict," he said. "We are turning into a totalitarian regime. If newspapers and media are harassed in this manner, it means the end of freedom of speech in Yemen."
The paper, meanwhile, suspended its printing on Tuesday in order to curb financial losses, but the staff is still coming to the office and no one has been laid off.
The government has vowed to target media that it describes as encouraging separatism and "harming unity."
Al-Ayyam plans to take the chief of police in Aden to court following the restrictions. The police commissioner gave the newspaper a receipt for the confiscated copies.
"It´s such a damning document that we are going to use it in court to prosecute him. He violated Yemeni laws and the constitution with these actions," Bashraheel said.
The paper has had to deal with intimidation and threats in the past, but the military has never intervened to stop Al-Ayyam´s distribution.
Reporters Without Borders (RSF) ranks Yemen´s media freedom as a "difficult situation."
Soazig Dollet, who heads the MENA desk at RSF, said Yemen ranked 155 out of 173 countries in the organization´s media freedom index.
"The government keeps the media under its control," Dollet said. "Censorship is frequently applied to subjects such as the presidency, state security and religion, but also anything linked to state integrity, such as a rebellion in the north or in the south."
At least eight people have been killed in fighting that began last Tuesday in southern Yemen. Clashes erupted after the government set up a new security checkpoint in the city of Radfan, angering locals, who attacked soldiers at the checkpoint. Demonstrations and protests have since spread to other areas in the south.
Separatists in southern Yemen have become more vocal over the past few weeks in demanding that southern Yemen separate from the north and become an independent state.
Yemen´s north and the Communist south were unified as the Republic of Yemen in 1990. However, the northerners still dominate the government sector and the economy. Impoverished southerners say they are being marginalized and they harbor resentment towards the central government.
The fact that this is being covered in the local press is a source of concern for Yemen, which would rather the issue be kept quiet.
When angry job-seekers rioted in southern Yemen last year, media correspondents told TML at the time that they were being banned from accessing the area of the demonstrations and that the authorities were harassing them and banning them from reporting the events firsthand.
The government has reportedly reached an agreement with tribal elders in the A-´Dali´ province in the south to end fighting between the army and anti-government rioters, News Yemen reported.
Additionally, Yemeni President ´Ali ´Abdallah ´Salih will replace some of the military commanders in the south with people who are more acceptable to the southerners.
The unrest in the south opens yet another front for the Yemeni army, which has been fighting an ongoing battle with rebels in the north for five years and is trying to eradicate Al-Qa´ida elements in the country.
Rebels affiliated with the Al-Houthi clan are based in the north, and have been involved in violent clashes with government forces since 2004, in which hundreds of people on both sides have been killed.
Al-Houthi fighters belong to the Zaidi minority, an offshoot of Shi´ite Islam, which wishes to restore the Zaidi imamate to Yemen after it was overthrown in a coup in 1962. They also feel the Yemenite government is too closely allied with the United States.
In addition, Yemen´s security forces are fighting Al-Qa´ida elements in the country.
Six weekly newspapers have been closed down by the Yemeni authorities over the past week after recently publishing articles criticizing the government´s handling of riots in the south.
On Monday, authorities besieged the Aden offices of the Al-Ayyam daily, which has been reporting the conflict. Authorities also confiscated 15,500 copies of the newspaper and prevented thousands of other copies from being distributed to remote selling points.
"This is happening because of our continuous coverage during the month of April of the conflict in the south," the newspaper´s foreign desk editor Bashraheel Bashraheel told The Media Line (TML).
Al-Ayyam uses a lot of photos in its news coverage, an important factor in a country where half the population cannot read or write. Bashraheel said they distribute 70,000 copies across the country, controlling over 72 percent of the selling market.
"Our coverage of the conflict in the south is seen as threatening to the ruling elite, as it documents the brutal force used in this conflict," he said. "We are turning into a totalitarian regime. If newspapers and media are harassed in this manner, it means the end of freedom of speech in Yemen."
The paper, meanwhile, suspended its printing on Tuesday in order to curb financial losses, but the staff is still coming to the office and no one has been laid off.
The government has vowed to target media that it describes as encouraging separatism and "harming unity."
Al-Ayyam plans to take the chief of police in Aden to court following the restrictions. The police commissioner gave the newspaper a receipt for the confiscated copies.
"It´s such a damning document that we are going to use it in court to prosecute him. He violated Yemeni laws and the constitution with these actions," Bashraheel said.
The paper has had to deal with intimidation and threats in the past, but the military has never intervened to stop Al-Ayyam´s distribution.
Reporters Without Borders (RSF) ranks Yemen´s media freedom as a "difficult situation."
Soazig Dollet, who heads the MENA desk at RSF, said Yemen ranked 155 out of 173 countries in the organization´s media freedom index.
"The government keeps the media under its control," Dollet said. "Censorship is frequently applied to subjects such as the presidency, state security and religion, but also anything linked to state integrity, such as a rebellion in the north or in the south."
At least eight people have been killed in fighting that began last Tuesday in southern Yemen. Clashes erupted after the government set up a new security checkpoint in the city of Radfan, angering locals, who attacked soldiers at the checkpoint. Demonstrations and protests have since spread to other areas in the south.
Separatists in southern Yemen have become more vocal over the past few weeks in demanding that southern Yemen separate from the north and become an independent state.
Yemen´s north and the Communist south were unified as the Republic of Yemen in 1990. However, the northerners still dominate the government sector and the economy. Impoverished southerners say they are being marginalized and they harbor resentment towards the central government.
The fact that this is being covered in the local press is a source of concern for Yemen, which would rather the issue be kept quiet.
When angry job-seekers rioted in southern Yemen last year, media correspondents told TML at the time that they were being banned from accessing the area of the demonstrations and that the authorities were harassing them and banning them from reporting the events firsthand.
The government has reportedly reached an agreement with tribal elders in the A-´Dali´ province in the south to end fighting between the army and anti-government rioters, News Yemen reported.
Additionally, Yemeni President ´Ali ´Abdallah ´Salih will replace some of the military commanders in the south with people who are more acceptable to the southerners.
The unrest in the south opens yet another front for the Yemeni army, which has been fighting an ongoing battle with rebels in the north for five years and is trying to eradicate Al-Qa´ida elements in the country.
Rebels affiliated with the Al-Houthi clan are based in the north, and have been involved in violent clashes with government forces since 2004, in which hundreds of people on both sides have been killed.
Al-Houthi fighters belong to the Zaidi minority, an offshoot of Shi´ite Islam, which wishes to restore the Zaidi imamate to Yemen after it was overthrown in a coup in 1962. They also feel the Yemenite government is too closely allied with the United States.
In addition, Yemen´s security forces are fighting Al-Qa´ida elements in the country.
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