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| Arabia |
| Yemen media crackdown sparks political storm |
| 2010-03-14 |
| SANAA - An opposition MP said on Saturday he will seek to have the information minister grilled in parliament over measures to block live coverage on Arab satellite television of the deadly unrest in south Yemen. Yemen has media? Who knew? Information Minister Hassan al-Lawzi should be "questioned on the reasons for the seizure of the transmission equipment of Al-Jazeera and Al-Arabiya," Abdul Razek al-Hajari told a meeting in Sanaa. Hundreds of journalists, parliamentarians and representatives of civil society groups turned out for the gathering in Sanaa to show solidarity with the channels. The ministry said the transmission gear of the two Arab satellite news channels was confiscated on Thursday because they were being used without clearance from Yemeni authorities. Such equipment "should not serve to provoke trouble and amplify events in such a way as to harm public order, as has been the case with Al-Jazeera," a ministry spokesman said. So they've managed to make me sympathetic to Al-Jazeera. That's not easy ... But Saeed Thabet, deputy head of the Yemeni journalists' union, insisted at the Sanaa gathering that the move was "illegal," appealing for President Ali Abdullah Saleh to intervene and have it reversed. Other speakers charged that the government was trying to cover up its heavy-handed methods in the south, where unrest has been fired up by a secessionist campaign and charges of economic neglect. "The authorities are trying to kill the witnesses... of a crime because the channels Al-Arabiya and Al-Jazeera are the best witnesses of their actions in Yemen," said an opposition Islamist MP, Fuad Dahana. Nah, they usually just shoot witnesses in that part of the world ... |
| Posted by:Steve White |