Hundreds of journalists without jobs after Al Houthis crack down on media

Al Mukalla: The Al Houthi militia has escalated its crackdown on the media in Yemen as its fighters suffer setbacks in the south, local and international right organisations and journalists said.

“They have arrested more than 15 journalists and incarcerated them in an unidentified location. Some of them have not been reached by their families since their capture,” said Marwan Dammaj, the secretary-general of the Yemeni Journalists Syndicate (YJS), a non-government organisation that advocates journalist rights in Yemen.

The Al Houthi movement came to the fore in September when it captured the Yemeni capital and subsequently expanded its influence to other provinces.

Right groups said that the militia, who hail from the northern province of Saada, have been harassing opposition journalists and media outlets since day one in power and hardened their attacks when the Saudi-led coalition bombed them in March. The Al Houthis accuse some opposition media of backing the Saudi attacks on Yemen and inciting people to revolt against its movement.

On August 6 two popular sister dailies decided to halt publication after receiving threats from a member of the ruling Al Houthi-appointed Revolutionary Council. The editors of Al Sharae and Al Oula newspapers said in a joint statement that they had suspended printing after coming under an “aggressive incitation campaign” by an Al Houthi council media and political member, blaming them for soft coverage of the Saudi air strikes in Yemen.

“Because they do not accept any scale of criticism from anyone, the Al Houthis harassed even these two newspapers that are seen as close to them.” Abdul Barri Taher, a veteran Yemeni journalist told Gulf News.

The Al Houthis also targeted local media establishments that initially backed their expansion and then switched sides. In late July, they stormed the studios of Azaal TV in Sana’a, expelled journalists and confiscated broadcasting machines. The TV channel began criticising the Al Houthis and the supporters of the former president Ali Abdullah Saleh since its owner, Mohammad Al Shaif, changed sides from being a supporter of Al Houthi ally and former President Ali Abdullah Saleh and threw his weight behind president Abd Rabbo Mansour Hadi, who opposes him, in May.

The first victims of the Al Houthi crackdown were media outlets owned by the rival Islamist party such as Sohail TV and some publications. With media outlets that are based in the south that slipped out of their control, the Al Houthi-controlled ministry of telecommunication has blocked almost all major news sites.

At the same time, the Studies and Economic Media Centre, a Sana’a-based economic think thank NGO said in a recent report that it had documented 87 attacks on the media in two months and as many as 350 journalists have lost their jobs in targeted media outlets.

Local journalists said that the Al Houthi attacks on media today are worse than those during Saleh’s reign.

“They have done in months what Saleh could not do in 33 years.” Taher said.

Dammaj said that the Al Houthis do not listen to local and international pressure unlike Saleh’s regime.

“Saleh’s regime used to respond to pressure.” Dammaj said that neither journalists nor right groups could take legal action against the militia as they had suspended courts. Mohammad Al Bukhiti, a spokesperson for the movement, did not respond to Gulf News’ calls to comment on the accusations.