07 Jun 12 | Index Index, Middle East and North Africa, minipost
A Yemeni court on Monday sentenced journalist Majed Karoot to one year in prison and fined him YR 200,000 for criticising local government officials on the popular social networking site Facebook. The director of corporate communications for the Al-Baida governorate, Mohammed Al-Karfoshi and his deputy, Kamal Al-Najar filed the complaint against posts made by the journalist on the site last year. The Yemeni Journalists’ Syndicate (YJS) called the verdict a “threat to freedom of the press and freedom of expression”.
16 Apr 12 | minipost, News and features
Prominent Yemeni journalist Muhammad al-Maqaleh was assaulted by armed men affiliated with a tribal group while visiting a government official’s house
Al-Maqaleh, editor of the news website Aleshteraki for the Yemeni Socialist Party, visited Defense Minister Mohamed Nasser Ahmed’s residence on Saturday [14 April] in the capital, Sana’a, to inquire about the presence of armed men dressed in military uniforms in the neighborhood, he told CPJ. When the journalist began speaking to the men outside the house–who were aligned with Yemen’s most influential tribal group, the al-Ahmar family — they began attacking him with their rifle butts and threatened him repeatedly, news reports said.
The journalist did not sustain any injuries, but the group broke the windshield of his car.
14 Feb 12 | Middle East and North Africa
The pardoned journalist has been imprisoned for one year at the request of the US administration. Iona Craig reports
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13 Feb 12 | Index Index, minipost
The offices of a Yemeni newspaper have been surrounded by armed men for over a week. On February 2, state-run daily Al-Thawra was surrounded by hundreds of men loyal to President Ali Abdullah Saleh. The attack followed the paper’s decision to print without Saleh’s picture on the front page for the first time in decades. The newspaper has not printed since Friday. In a similar attack, state-run daily Al-Gomhoriah was surrounded by Saleh supporters on Friday and Saturday. The group, who claimed the paper had become a mouthpiece for the opposition, prevented the paper from printing until Sunday. Four other journalists are under threat from a fatwa issued in early February that calls for their deaths and for the closure of the newspapers and websites that carried their articles.
