ABYAN, Dec. 23 — The violations against freedom of press, freedom of expression and journalists in Yemen are on rise, according to a report recently published by the Center of Training and Protection of Press Freedoms, a Yemeni independent organization for defending the rights of journalists.
The report recorded around 1402 violations against local and international newspapers, journalists, reporters and opinion writers since 2000 until July 2009.
The violations ranged from threatening and intimidation, arresting, assaulting, unfair trials, interrogation and arbitrary firing on journalists and opinion writers, to confiscating and seizing newspapers and blocking news websites and blogs.
The report was presented in a two day seminar, organized by the Center of Training and Protection of Press Freedoms. The Seminar, which dealt with ’trial procedures of newspapers and journalists’ started from Tuesday Dec 22 .
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| Around 1402 violations against journalists were reported in the last nine years ranging from direct threat to abduction and illegal detention. (Photo by Women Journalists Without Chains) |
“The aim of the seminar was, to assess the general status of the freedom of press and the trial procedures that were followed in cases of journalists and newspapers and identify whether the problems are embedded within the laws or in the implementation of the laws by the relevant executive authorities,” said Mohamed Al-Odaini, the director of the center.
During the seminar, a team of lawyers presented an analysis of the trial procedures of newspapers and journalists related to printed materials and publishing, between 1990 and 2008.
The first working paper was on the ‘interrogation procedures and their level of consistency with the international legislation on the Right of Expression and Freedom. It was prepared and presented by Afra’a Hariri, a lawyer and human rights activist. The paper reviewed of the Yemeni criminal procedure system, which combines the features of the accusation and the investigative system.
The paper showed that although, the Yemeni criminal procedures system regulated the process of interrogation, collecting evidence and trials under the rule of ‘the accused is innocent until he is convicted‘, there were recorded violations of applying procedures that were not complying with either the Yemeni law nor the international legislation. The paper also cited examples of recorded violations and came up with the analysis that most of them follow a typical style in the accusation statements.
“All the accusation statements against journalists and opinion writers by the prosecution alleged the published articles for provoking tribal chauvinisms, or inciting secession among individuals in the society,” said Ms. Hariri. She also questioned whether the interrogations and trials were based on evidence of conflict or as merely preventive measures.
”If those articles were put on trial because they incited chauvinism, why other articles in other newspapers that are affiliated to ruling party are not subjected to trails or interrogations? Are they exempted from the law?” questioned a journalist, from Sana’a radio ( the main public radio), agreeing with Hariris’ working paper.
In a similar activity, organized by the ‘Women Journalists Without Chains’ organization, in Sana’a, on Tuesday, Dec, 22, the organization protested for the 27th time to release the Al-Ayam newspaper that was confiscated and banned from publishing in April and release the disappeared journalist Mohamed Al-Maqaleh. Mohamed Al-Maqaleh disappeared in August.
It is worth mentioning that this year witnessed the biggest campaign against the press in Yemen that included the confiscation of around eight local newspapers and seizing international newspapers at the airport such as the Al-Quds newspaper.