Published on 7 October 2009
25 September 2009 - Still no word of opposition website editor abducted a week ago, colleagues protest
28 July 2009 - Al Jazeera journalists harassed and threatened over coverage of southern unrest
16 July 2009 - Al-Ayyam reporter gets 14-month jail term
A demonstration in defence of free expression that the NGO Women Journalists Without Chains has been organising with hundreds of participants ever Tuesday since 2007 in Freedom Square in Sana’a was dispersed violently yesterday by the police.
The head of the NGO, Tawakkol Karman, has given this account: “The authorities have today revealed their true face (…) Each week, hundreds of citizens, journalists and intellectuals have been gathering to defend free expression, talking about the subjects that are dear to them.
“Without flagging, despite the police violence, we have been fighting for information about the kidnapped journalist Muhammad Al Maqalih and we have been supporting his family. We have also called for the reopening of the independent newspaper Al Ayyam and the release of the journalists Fouad Rashed, editor of the Al Mukallah Press website, and Salah Al Saqladi, the editor of Aden News Network.
“The police violently dispersed our peaceful demonstration on 6 October on the grounds that we did not have a permit from the interior ministry. The police tried to confiscate our cameras and broke our video camera. Several of us were injured. The authorites regard our actions as a call for revolution that endangers the republic.”
Karman added: “All this is inadmissible. Such methods are an insult to the constitution. Are we going to continue the sit-ins? Yes, with even more force. We will resist in order to restore fundamental freedoms and journalists’ freedoms, because the authorities have suppressed all the means of expression and information that existed in Yemen.”
Reporters Without Borders said: “We are approaching the end of an independent press in Yemen. The government’s determination to ban this weekly sit-in is the last stage in a persecution of journalists that is aimed at imposing a media blackout on what is happening in the country.”
The press freedom organisation reiterates its concern about Al Maqalih, the journalist who was kidnapped three weeks ago (see the 25 September release: “Still no word of opposition website editor”). The authorities refuse to provide any information about his current situation or cooperate with attempts to locate him.
Sit-in video:
Adel Kareem Nabil Suleiman, better known by the pen name Kareem Amer, was arrested on 6 November 2006, for articles published on his blog .
