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The reality of journalists in Yemen oscillated between being killed, kidnapped, tortured and threatened during the year 2016, in light of the continued control of the militias of the Houthi group and ousted president Ali Saleh over the capital Sanaa and other provinces by force of arms.
Large catastrophic events occurred in 2016. They cast a shadow over lives of many Yemeni journalists who have been subjected to killings, abductions and torture by the Houthi militia and forces loyal to the ousted president, who ignored all local and global calls for the release of media professionals.
During 2016, the Yemeni Journalists Syndicate, the International Federation of Journalists, the United Nations and other human rights organizations issued statements condemning the continued abduction of journalists in Yemen without charge or trial, and demanded the militant Houthi group to quickly release them but all to no avail.
Several Yemeni provinces, including Sanaa, Taiz and Marib, also saw many protests held to call upon the international community to put pressure on the Houthis for the release of 16 journalists who are still being held captive in their prisons, most of whom were abducted by mid-2016.
According to reports of human rights organizations, journalists in Yemen are living under the worst conditions due to nonstop abductions and restrictions on the media and freedoms.
Violations at the hands of Houthi insurgents have impacted heavily on Yemen’s place in the world press freedom rankings for 2016, as the country was ranked at 170 out of 180 countries.
The report also touched on an explicit threat from the Houthi group leader, Abdul-Malik Al Houthi, who declared an open war on media professionals who are, in his opinion, "more dangerous than the Saudi-led Arab military coalition.
According to statistics published by IFJ yesterday, Iraq has ranked first having the highest killing tally with 15, followed by Afghanistan with 13, Mexico with 11 and Yemen with 8 killings.
The head of YJS’s training committee, Nabil Al Osaidi, has said the media milieu and working in the field of journalism as a whole has is going through a phase that is the worst in decades, as there are unique brutality and hostility towards journalists and media workers in addition to terrible suppression of freedom of opinion and expression.
"Since the putschists have seized control of the capital Sanaa and other cities in September 2014, Yemen has been one of the most dangerous countries in the world for journalists and media stuff,” Al Osaidi added.
As to the YJS's efforts in defense of press and journalists, Al Osaidi pointed out that “despite the difficult situation at home, the takeover of the union's budget and suspension of many training programs and activities the YJS used to provide, efforts are being made in the context of the defense of journalists and stand against violations.
He continued by saying that the union has lost its administrative staff and gotten badly affected by instability and displacement of its members. Moreover, many of the council members found themselves forced to flee the country or to rural areas and villages after they had been pursued by the militias.
In the same context, the head of SADA NGO Hussein Al Sufi regarded 2016 as the year of grief for the the press milieu in Yemen, pointing out "that bullets of the militias (Houthi militants and forces loyal to Saleh) deprived us of the purest spirits.”
"In 2016, many photojournalists and journalists were killed, including Ahmed al-Shaibani, Mohammed Al Yemeni, Awab Al Zubairi in Taiz province, Mubarak Al Abadi in Al Jawf province and Abdul Karim Al Jerbani in Midi as well as the investigative journalist Mohammed Al Absi who died in in mysterious circumstances,” Al Sufi added.
He concluded by saying, "Websites are still blocked and official media institutions are taken over, while Yemen’s Journalists Syndicate is also still closed and journalists have been displaced at home and abroad. We have only hope that 2017 will hurt less."
In light of the continued control of Sanaa and several provinces in north of Yemen, the Houthi militia and ousted president Saleh are seemingly determined to continue imposing restrictions on freedoms and refusing the release of the kidnapped journalists. This is reinforced by statements of the minister of information in the coup’s government, Ahmed Hamed, when he described the abducted media professionals as "agents and spies. "
