World should not ignore Yemen's revolution, newspaper editor pleads

Sana'a: Hakim Al Masmari, editor of the English-language Yemen Post, says "it's hell" to be working as journalist in Yemen.

He was speaking to the International Press Institute's Naomi Hunt by Skype, which was something of a feat because Skype has been jammed from Yemen since February.

It is just one of the ways in which the regime of President Ali Abdullah Saleh is inhibiting media coverage in his country.

But Almasmari says the international media is still not paying nearly enough attention either to the protesters or to the bravery of reporters and cameramen.

Here are some of his key quotes from Hunt's questions:

 What is it like trying to report on the bloody conflict within Yemen?
 
HAKIM AL MASMARI: Journalists in Yemen right now are very much in danger... It's chaotic; you can see that the freedom of press in Yemen has deteriorated so much. There's no government, no law. And when there's no law, anyone's life is at risk...

That's why journalists have been killed, four of them, since Saleh came back [on 23 September, from Saudi Arabia]...

With the absence of law and any government, it's easy for anyone just to attack a journalist or just to kill him, making this a lesson to others that anyone who goes against a specific group will not be safe."

NAOMI HUNT: The journalists who have been killed over the last month were covering protests. Do you think they were among the protestors, or do you think they were singled out?

HAKIM AL MASMARI: They were singled out for sure... It's not only being attacked and being killed, it's the harassment journalists go through. The tons of phone calls, the tons of visits to the office... their kids being at risk of being kidnapped... It's more a direct threat to journalists; anyone seen with a camera, anyone seen with a recorder, anyone seen with a pen and paper writing down notes is automatically targeted."

Tawakul Karman, the Yemeni journalist and activist, was one of this year's Nobel peace prize awardees. Has that helped to focus more attention on the situation in Yemen?

"No. [She] received her prize for her advocacy and peaceful protest and not for her media work... The international media has been ignoring press freedom in Yemen...

There is not one single foreign journalist in Yemen right now; it's all local work. And our government, in its efforts to stop any connection with the world, [prevents] any network, any TV network, any media outlet, any foreign media journalist from entering the country... and yet they are still not giving the much-needed attention and support that's needed...

"The [international] media should not forget Yemen. There's a revolution going on. There are people being killed... These things should not be ignored. Different revolutions only took less than 40 days; in Yemen it's now entering its tenth month. The world should not ignore Yemen and should respect that. That is the only way the current regime will understand that it will be held accountable for its crimes.