Following ban on YemenPortal.net and attack on vehicleReporters Without Borders asks for explanation [Archives:2008/1129/Local News]

SANA'A, Feb 13 ) Reporters Without Borders wrote to Yemeni Information minister Hassan Ahmed Al-Lawzi yesterday demanding an explanation for apparent government filtering of the Internet.

The letter came two days after YemenPortal editor Walid Al-Saqaf's car was vandalized on February 10. Saqaf says he is convinced that it was “done by the authorities following the creation of an alternative address to circumvent government censorship.” The police said they are investigating.

“Reporters Without Borders is worried about the situation of the Internet in Yemen. Access to the news website and search engine YemenPortal has been blocked twice in less than a month” said the letter, which continued, “Online programs for circumventing censorship, or 'proxies,' are also inaccessible from within Yemen and several opposition websites are regularly blocked. They include al-Shoura (www.al-shora.net), the Yemeni Council (www.al-yemen.org) and Yemen Sound (www.yemen-sound.com) discussion forums, which are among the most popular in the country. The support site for Kareem Amer, an Egyptian blogger who has been arrested for almost a year for exercising his right to online free expression, has also been inaccessible since January 28.”

The letter, signed by Robert Menard, Secretary-General, said “Reporters Without Borders finds these measures to be disturbing for free expression. These new areas of expression are an opportunity for the press. We note with sadness that your ministry is making increasingly frequent use of Internet filtering to ensure that the opposition is not able to express itself.”

Regarding the car incident, Al-Saqaf, who is now in Sweden, has stated that three unidentified men attacked and shattered the front windshield of the vehicle operated by YemenPortal.net's office in Sana'a, Yemen just before midnight on Sunday, February 10.

Al-Saqaf noted that eye witnesses said a taxi driver and two passengers, of whom one was masked, suddenly stopped near the car and kept on smashing the windscreen with rocks until neighbors started approaching. Then they returned to the taxi and quickly fled the scene.

None of the eyewitnesses were able to read the car's plate number but some noticed a portrait of President Ali Abdullah Saleh on the back window of the taxi.

A complaint was filed at the closest police station immediately after the attack, which is believed to have been in response to the website's successful initiative in launching the first anti-blocking campaign of its kind in Yemen.

This comes after a third alternative website domain was set up in record time after Yemeni authorities banned the website's domain for the second successive time. This resistance to the block may have been the motive behind the attack, Al-Saqaf said.

Yemeni authorities had previously blocked the original domain of the website (http://yemenportal.net) on January 19 and proceeded to block the alternative domain (http://arabiaportal.net/yemen) on February 9. The third domain (http://yemenportal.org) was set up immediately after the second domain was blocked.

“We expect the authorities to go on blocking the third domain, after which we will simply launch a fourth. This will go on for as long as it takes.” Al-Saqaf noted.

The attack comes at a time when YemenPortal.net is leading a country-wide campaign against blocking Yemeni websites. The initiative was to allow all Internet users in Yemen full access of all blocked news and opinion websites, which are accessible through the campaign's website http://yemenportal.net/blocked. The authorities had initiated a new wave of bans against political websites without disclosing any reasons.

Authorities have in the past used various methods of intimidation, from sending SMS messages to beating journalists or smashing vehicles. “This is far too familiar,” Al-Saqaf said, adding that “If the attack is intended to threaten or intimidate us, I would like to stress that it only strengthens our position and encourages us to continue our mission of fighting to unblock more than a dozen websites that are banned by the authorities.”

Al-Saqaf added that before he traveled he had received phone calls from people in the traffic police asking him to turn some papers over about the car that was damaged. According to him, he received the call the night he left the country. He also mentioned that he was advised to remove the banned website to avoid problems.

Concerned human rights and press freedom organizations in Yemen have pledged to take action to condemn this attack and call upon the authorities to investigate the incident promptly and bring the perpetrators to justice. They also stressed on the need to release the blocked websites, whose ban constitutes a major violation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which was ratified by the Yemeni government.

“The recent attacks against the press, and the online media in particular, lead us to believe that the government's inaction in the past have encouraged some elements to attack journalists and media professionals with a sense of immunity,” Al-Saqaf said.

“The wave of website bans and other types of intimidation against the online media is in clear contradiction to government pledges and commitments to bolster freedom of expression. We call upon the government to respect those commitments and urge the international community to help us resist this unprecedented wave of attacks.”

The staff of YemenPortal.net and the free speech group MidEast Youth have decided to organize an online campaign on February 15 (http://yemenportal.net/blocked) to call for the unblocking of Yemeni websites and to question the government about online censorship.
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