Government continues to throttle press [Archives:2002/29/Front Page]

The government of Yemen continues to harass and throttle the press. After the release of Abdulraheem Mohsen and Ibraheem Hussein last week, on condition that they would attend their trial sessions, the press and publication prosecution started interrogating three correspondents of foreign media.
The prosecution interrogated Tuesday and Saturday, Faisal Mukaram of the London-based Al-Hayat, Ahmed Al-Haj of AP and Khalid Al-Mahdi of the German press agency DPA.
The three journalists were said to have reported a military issue, prohibited by the law of press and publication, following reports on the attack on the helicopter of brigadier Ali Mohammed Saleh by tribesmen of Al-Jawf province.
The plane came under fire Tuesday 4, July while flying over Al-Zahir district. The brigadier was wounded in his shoulder.
Other correspondents were summoned by the ministry of Information. Those corespondents are: Mohammed al-Ghobari of UAE-based Al-Bayan, Mohammed Al-Qadhi of the Saudi-based Al-Riyadh, Saeed Thabet of Kuds press, Ibraheem Al-Ashmawi of Al-Ahram, Arafat Madabish of Al-Akhbar Al-Arab, and Ahmed Al-Jabali of Al-Ithad. Those reporters were warned by the Ministry of Information not to report military issues, otherwise their licenses of correspondence would be confiscated. They were even said to confess they had made something wrong in reporting the helicopter incident and the consequent retaliation of the military troops.
These reporters have told Yemen Times they have been scared by the warning reports of the Ministry which aim to throttle the press and hinder them from doing their job honestly and freely.
They expressed concern over the future of press freedom in the country.
Other NGOs condemned those measures carried out by the Information Ministry. They called on journalists and human rights activists to stand together against these acts to harass the press, prevent journalists to inform the public, a basic human right ensured by the law and constitution.
In this respect, the Sirah primary court postponed the trial of Al-Ayam Daily to August 12. The paper is before the court on different issues, the most important is an interview three years ago published in the paper with Abu Hamza Al-Masri. A number of human rights activists gathered around last Wednesday to express support for the paper.

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