Four journalists and photographers survive assassination attempt, WJWC condemns incident and warns against targeting of media workers

TV-Belqees’ correspondent, Fawaz Al Hammadi, has survived when a Houthi sniper shot him and his fellow photographer, Mohammed Hizam, who was injured while covering battles between troops belonging to Yemeni National Army and the Houthi militia supported by forces loyal to the ousted president Ali Abdullah Saleh in Taiz province’s Assilw district.

In the same context, Yemen Youth TV reported that two of its channel crew, Abdulqawi Al Aazzani and Abu Bakr Al Yousofi, came under fire by Houthi militiamen while carrying out their professional duties at the same battlefield.

In this regard, Women Journalists Without Chains has condemned in the strongest terms the assassination attempt by snipers of Houthi-Saleh militias that premeditatedly targeted four of journalists and photographers: Fawaz Al Hammadi, Abdulqawi Al Aazzani and Abu Bakr Al Yousofi and Mohammed Hizam.

The organization, in a press statement, denounced systematic targeting of journalists and media workers.

WJWC has once again warned the Houthi group and ousted president Saleh to continue to target journalists, going on that journalists pay a terrible price for their professional mission, and grave violations have been committed against them as well.

“During a year and eight months of the war in Yemen, journalism has lost 18 journalists while many hundreds have been detained, forcibly disappeared and tortured, and some have fled the country as well. In addition, offices and headquarters of opposition media outlets were shut down”, WJWC stated in its press statement.

The human rights defender stressed the need to investigate all the crimes committed against journalists and bring the perpetrators to justice in order to receive their fitting punishment, emphasizing that there shouldn’t be there impunity for those who committed violations against journalists.

Finally, the organization founded by Nobel Laureate Tawakkol Karman called on all human rights organizations to condemn the targeting of journalists and assassination attempts.