Cairo 11 June 2011

ANHRI has condemned today the escalating violations of Yemeni authorities against journalists and media men. Yemeni authorities confiscated Akhbar Al Youm newspaper in Aden city, attacked Al Hurra channel reporter and photographer who were covering the sit-in taken place in front of the Vice president house in Sana’a. Furthermore an officer in the first armored division “Askar Zail”, that has previously declared its support to the peaceful revolution, tried to kidnap the well-known journalist Abdul Karim Al Khaiwani.

Worth mentioning that media men and journalists are harassed in Yemen since the outbreak of protests and demonstrations calling for Yemeni president Ali Abdullah Saleh to step down in last February. Thereafter, several newspapers were confiscated e.g. “Akhbar Al Youm”, “Al Ahaly”, “Al Qadia”, “Al Yakin”, “Al Share’e”, moreover many news sites and blogs were blocked and hacked in failed attempts to black out the situation in Yemen.

ANHRI said “The confiscation of newspapers and attacks on media men become a daily behavior of Yemeni authorities which hopelessly attempt to black out their crackdown on civilians in an era of new media that disclose all events occurring in Yemen to the whole world.”

ANHRI added “Yemeni authorities have to respect people’s right in freedom of opinion and expression as a genuine right that no one should be deprived of, and the international society is urged to press the Yemeni authorities over journalists and media men rights in Yemen.”