Human rights report: 41 cases of violations against journalists and media outlets in Yemen since 2024

The Yemeni Journalists Syndicate said that it monitored 41 cases of violations against journalists and media outlets in the Republic of Yemen during the first half of the current year 2024, painting a bleak picture of press and media freedoms in Yemen.

This came in a report issued by the union to monitor media freedoms during the first half of this year, as it monitored 41 cases of violations affecting journalists, media outlets, and the property of workers in the media sector from last January until the end of June 2024.

According to the report, the number of violations against journalists in Yemen has increased to nearly 1,700 violation cases since the start of the war, which stopped 165 media outlets, blocked nearly 200 local, Arab, and international websites, and claimed the lives of 45 journalists.

The cases of violations monitored by the Syndicate during the first half of this year were distributed between 11 cases of threats and incitement against journalists, representing 26.8% of the total violations, 8 cases of detaining the freedom of journalists, accounting for 19.5%, 7 cases of attacks on journalists, their property, and the media, accounting for 17.1%, and 6 cases of deprivation of freedom of journalists, accounting for 19.5%. Cases of blocking, prevention, and confiscation of media outlets, journalists, and their belongings amounted to 14.6%, 6 cases of trials and summonses of journalists, amounted to 14.6%, two cases of suspension of salary, amounted to 4.9%, and one case of deportation of a journalist from an Arab country, amounted to 2.5% of the total violations.

The Houthi group committed 18 cases of violations, at a rate of 44%, while the legitimate government, with its various bodies and formations, committed 16 cases of violations, at a rate of 40%. Of these, formations affiliated with the Southern Transitional Council, a partner in the government, committed (50%), while the American forces committed two cases, at a rate of 5%, and the Egyptian authorities committed two cases, at a rate of 5%. One case of violation was recorded against a media outlet, at a rate of 2%, another case of violation against social media activists, at a rate of 2%, and a third case against an external technology company, at a rate of 2%.

The union documented 11 cases of threats and incitement against journalists and media outlets, including 7 cases of threats, representing 64%, and 4 cases of incitement and defamation, representing 36% of the total threats and incitement, of which the Houthis committed 6 cases, while the government committed 4 cases, and social media activists committed one case. .

The Syndicate also monitored 8 cases of detaining the freedom of journalists, which varied between 4 cases of kidnapping, representing 50% of the total deprivation of freedom, two cases of arrest, representing 25%, and two cases of persecution, accounting for 25%, of which the government committed 5 cases, while the Houthis committed two cases, and the Egyptian authorities committed one case. There are still 7 detainees held by various parties, including 4 held by the Houthi group. They are (the hidden journalist Wahid Al-Sufi, the employee of the Saba News Agency, Nabil Al-Sadawi, the photographer at the Yemen Digital Agency, Abdullah Al-Nabhani, and the media activist, Muhammad Al-Nahi.).

She pointed out the presence of two journalists with the Transitional Council, a partner in the government, namely (Ahmed Maher and Nasih Shaker), in addition to the journalist who was forcibly hidden by Al-Qaeda in Hadramaut since October 2015 AD, Muhammad Qaid Al-Muqri.

The union monitored 7 cases of attacks on journalists, their property, and the media, distributed between two cases of attacks on media outlets, two cases of beating journalists, and two cases of attacks on journalists’ property, not to mention a case of attempted murder targeting the Secretary-General of the Yemeni Journalists Syndicate, our colleague Muhammad Shubaita, by forces affiliated with the Houthi group in Sana’a. .

The Houthi group committed 3 cases of attacks on journalists and their property, while the government committed two cases, and US forces carried out two attacks on media headquarters.

The union recorded 6 cases of blocking, prevention and confiscation targeting media outlets, journalists and their property, including two cases of blocking websites by 33%, two cases of confiscation of journalists’ property by 33%, a case of prevention of coverage by 17%, and a case of confiscation of newspaper property by 17% of the total blocking, prevention and confiscation. The Houthis committed 3 of these cases, while the government committed two cases, and a German technology company committed one case of blocking.

The union monitored 6 cases of trials, including 3 cases of journalists being tried, at a rate of 50%, two cases of summons and investigation, at a rate of 33%, and a case of issuing a judicial ruling to imprison journalist Ahmar Maher, at a rate of 17% of the total trials. The Houthis committed 3 cases of them, while the legitimate government committed 3 cases.

The union recorded two cases of stopping the salaries of journalists, one of which was committed by the Houthi group, while a media outlet committed one case. The union also monitored a case of deportation of journalist Tawfiq Al-Jand from the State of Egypt as an arbitrary measure.

The report said that the conditions of press freedoms have continued to deteriorate since the Houthi group’s coup against the state in September 2014 and its practice of a bulldozing policy, which resulted in the suspension of 119 magazines and newspapers out of 132 newspapers and magazines that were operating, while today only 13 newspapers remain operating in Yemen.

He explained that the electronic press was not spared from this policy, as statistics show that out of 147 news sites operating today, 114 sites were closed due to the war, not to mention that more than 200 local and foreign sites were blocked from their followers inside Yemen by the Houthi authority.

He pointed out that the situation is the same in the television and radio sector. Of the 26 satellite channels operating today, 22 channels are operating, while four channels are suspended, while there are still 6 suspended radio stations out of 60 radio stations. ·



The union called on all the various authorities to release the detained journalists and ease the restrictions imposed on journalistic work in Sanaa, Aden, Marib, Hadramaut, Taiz and other governorates.

The report called on the legitimate, internationally recognized government to work to restore the union’s headquarters in Aden, which is controlled by a partner in the government, the Southern Transitional Council, and to end the restrictions imposed on journalistic work and journalists in Aden.

The union renewed its demand for the legitimate government to pay the salaries of employees in the official media in areas it does not control, as a moral and legal obligation and to end the complications facing displaced journalists and media professionals.

The union also called on the legitimate government to investigate all violations committed by its affiliated bodies, and to work to provide a safe work environment in areas under its control, calling on the Houthi group and the Transitional Council to release all kidnapped journalists, end the state of hostility towards the press and journalists, and reveal the fate of the forcibly disappeared journalist Waheed Al-Sufi. For more than nine years, journalist Naseh Shaker has been hidden since last November, and to end the suffering of journalist Ahmed Maher, who was subjected to arrest, torture, forced confession, and detention without a fair trial, and then an unjust sentence was issued to imprison him for four years after a series of grave violations that accompanied his arrest and trial procedures.

The union called on all organizations concerned with freedom of opinion and expression, and the office of the international envoy for Yemen, to support journalists, adopt their causes, and put pressure on all parties to respect freedom of opinion and expression.

The union recommended that countries and active parties put pressure on the parties to the conflict in political negotiations to commit to providing a safe environment for journalistic work and respect freedom of the press and freedom of opinion and expression, calling on the International Committee of the Red Cross to work to provide a healthy and safe environment for detainees and to investigate the violations that journalists are exposed to in detention centers.