Yemen ranks second worse in press abuses [Archives:2006/952/Local News]

SANA'A, June 4 ) The first Arab Journalists' Union (AJU) report on press freedoms revealed that Yemen ranks second in press freedom abuses committed in the Arab world.

The AJU's Permanent Committee for Freedoms announced that it took four factors into consideration when it analyzed questionnaires about press freedoms in the Arab world. The first factor related to journalists' freedoms and the harassment and other annoyances they encountered. The second factor was concerned with the freedom of newspapers, forced closings, and any arbitrary measures taken against them by governments.

The third factor focused on the scope of freedom that governments allowed for information publication and the ownership of print, audio, and visual media. Lastly, the fourth factor discussed the forms of monitoring that governments enacted concerning newspapers and press freedoms.

Abuse of the freedom of press in Yemen was allocated a score of 17 points, however in war-ravaged Iraq, abuse of the freedom of press was given a score of 18 points. Kuwait was the only Arab country that saw low levels of abuse against the press with a score of only 2 points, followed by Jordan, Egypt, and Qatar.
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