Calls to stop violations against journalists in Yemen

45 organizations within the Justice Charter Coalition said that journalism in Yemen is going through the worst phase in its history. For a whole decade, violations against journalists have not stopped, with perpetrators and those involved escaping punishment. 

This has contributed to Yemen being classified as the third most dangerous country in the world for journalists, according to Reporters Without Borders in its 2021 report, which indicated that Yemen ranks 154th in press freedom out of 180 countries for the year 2024.

The organizations said: “At a time when we demand justice, that those involved not escape punishment, and that those responsible for all crimes against journalists and media activists be held accountable, instead of providing the means of protection that help them work for the truth, we are witnessing unprecedented brutality, as if the ongoing hell against journalists has just begun.”

In this context, the organizations referred to the recent kidnapping of journalist Mohammed Al-Mayahy by the Houthi militia, sentencing journalist Taha Al-Moammar to death, confiscating his property, and retrying four journalists who had previously been released in a UN-sponsored exchange deal, stressing that "these arbitrary practices reveal the brutal and repressive approach followed by the Houthi group against journalists, which has led to the desertification of their areas from independent and partisan journalism."

The Yemeni Journalists Syndicate had documented, over the course of a decade, more than 3,000 violations against journalists, media institutions and media activists in Yemen.