YJS condemns Al-Bokari targeting [Archives:2006/919/Local News]
SANA'A, Feb. 8 – The Yemeni Journalists Syndicate (YJS) council has refused their general secretary, Hafiz Al-Bokari's, resignation that was made official more than two months ago. The council consensually refused the resignation along with hundreds of YJS members who had sent their refusals to the YJS.
Al-Bokari resigned because the YJS failed to defend the freedom of press and also because of the numerous attacks on journalists including prominent figures in the syndicate as he claimed. He felt that his position in the syndicate was not effective, so he is currently seeking other means to work towards freedom of press in Yemen.
The board also condemned the accusation that was brought on the 26 September newspaper website. Here, Al-Bokari and his wife, journalist Rahma Hujaira, are said to have connections with Denmark. The syndicate considered this as a way to blackmail the two journalists, especially after the recent crises regarding the illustrations of the prophet Mohammad in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten.
Al-Bokari and Hujaira was a subject of a defaming publication by Al-Bilad newspaper last year. In a press release, Al-Bokari said to Yemen Times that he has accepted to withdraw his resignation on condition that there should be clear achievements in developing press law and to topple the present press draft law. He also said that the syndicate must be kept intact by avoiding partisan clashes which results in undermining the syndicate activity.
He added “I agreed to go back to the syndicate for the sake of improving the journalists' conditions who are suffering many problems.”
Commenting on the news of instigations against him and his wife, Al-Bokari said that he filed a lawsuit but strangely enough the attorney did not respond positively well with the case. He claims that if similar thing happened to high class people or officials in the government then the attorney will respond promptly. “Unfortunately, this is what is happening in our country nowadays,” he concluded.
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