| Submit your comments on this article |
| Arabia |
| Houthi rebels continue to target media in Yemen |
| 2015-03-13 |
| [YEMENONLINE.INFO] Yemen's Shiite Houthi ...a Zaidi Shia insurgent group operating in Yemen. They have also been referred to as the Believing Youth. Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi is said to be the spiritual leader of the group and most of the military leaders are his relatives. The Yemeni government has accused the Houthis of having ties to the Iranian government, which wouldn't suprise most of us. The group has managed to gain control over all of Saada Governorate and parts of Amran, Al Jawf and Hajjah Governorates. Its slogan is God is Great, Death to America™, Death to Israel, a curse on the Jews... rebels are still persecuting journalists, media outlets and media support institutions eight months after seizing control of the capital, Sanaa, and a large swathe of the country. Their methods include death threats, abduction and looting. The Yemeni Journalists' Syndicate (YJS) has registered no fewer that 67 cases of such methods being used to prevent journalists from doing their work. In one of the latest cases reported by the YJS, Houthi rebel snuffies kidnapped two journalists working for the daily Akhbar Al Yaoum -- Abdelwahed Nejjar and layout editor Fouad Zoubayri -- from the Ashoumwaa printing and publishing house on 5 March. Printing equipment, tables and chairs were also looted and taken away in trucks that had been parked outside for 18 days or more. The YJS and other local NGOs have urged the Houthis to release the two journalists. People who were staging a sit-in inside a camp to demand that the Houthi rebels withdraw from the Ashoumwaa centre were threatened at gunpoint and forcibly dispersed by rebels on 26 February. Reporters Without Borders deplores the harassment of Yemen's media by the Houthi rebels, which increased in August and again since their arrival in the capital in September. |
| Posted by:Fred |