Yemeni Information Ministry Orders 7 Major Newspapers to Cease Printing
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Related subjects: Asia / Pacific, Media, Middle East, Open Government, Press Freedom, Rights & Freedoms, Security & Surveillance, Transparency Yield Comments Off
A mounting movement in the south of Yemen, in opposition to the government has led to the government ordering the closure of 7 major newspapers. Large anti-government rallies led to clashes in which at least 8 people were killed, and the government has now banned the publication of newspapers it says threaten “national unity”.
A report yesterday from the Committee to Protect Journalists reads:
After confiscating thousands of copies of a critical independent newspaper, authorities laid siege today to the paper’s offices in Aden, Yemen. The daily, Al-Ayyam, has been covering the ongoing conflict in the country’s southern region.
Bashraheel Bashraheel, general manager of Al-Ayyam, told CPJ that after three consecutive days of authorities confiscating thousands of copies of the newspaper, security forces today surrounded Al-Ayyam and prevented the distribution of all 70,000 copies of the paper. Staff members are allowed to leave the building but are being searched as they exit, Bashraheel said.
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There are reports that government and paramilitary units have been seizing extant copies of the banned papers and burning them. The celebration of International Press Freedom Day on Sunday has spurred recognition of the perils often facing journalists around the world. Yemen’s response to a political crisis in one part of the country now places in peril the entire nation’s media and reporting services.
Also according to CPJ:
On May 1, an armed group that Bashraheel believes was acting on behalf of the authorities stopped a vehicle carrying copies of Al-Ayyam to the capital, Sana’a, and burned 16,500 copies, according to a statement by the newspaper. On Sunday, military checkpoints outside Aden prevented 50,000 copies of the newspaper from reaching readers in other parts of the country.
There are concerns that such armed gangs could be used to attack journalists and editors, as has happened in Sri Lanka, Russia, Iraq and other places. There are also fears that the government might use its ban as grounds for jailing journalists and editors who seek to find out what the government is doing in response to the mounting dissent across the south.
Protests in the south are reported to be complaints about the central government’s routine “marginalization” of the southern region, which joined the rest of Yemen under a central government only in 1990. Clashes there have led to the killing of soldiers and civilians, and there is speculation the government planning a violent crackdown on the movement.
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