Human rights organisation finds Houthis guilty of 52 counts of violations against the media

On Monday, a Yemeni human rights organisation accused gunmen affiliated with the Houthi group, of committing “52 violations against local and international media outlets” during their first month of control of Sana’a.

The Institution for Freedom, Rights and Media Development issued a statement that said, “Our organisation has found that there were 52 cases of assault and violations against the media and journalists, ranging from minor hostilities to more severe onslaught. 33 of these cases affected individual journalists and 19 cases targeted media organisations. Fifty-one of these violations occurred in Sana’a while one was reported from LBB”.

According to the statement issued by the organisation, “Houthi gunmen who swept the capital on 21 September committed the majority of these infringements. Only a small number were committed by other individuals (names were not specified in the statement)”.

The assault against the media affected three government channels including Yemen TV, Sheba and Al-Iman, all of which suffered from heavy artillery when their headquarters were stormed and taken over. A private news channel known as Suhail was also attacked and workers were trapped inside the channel’s headquarters for a whole day. It has been three weeks since these media outlets last broadcasted from their channels.

Thirty-three journalists who are based in the capital of Sana’a were subject to physical assault when their homes were broken into and looted, including: the former president of Yemeni satellite, Abdel-Ghani Al-Shamiri, Nobel Peace Prize winner and journalist, Tawakkol Karaman, the President of the Shumoo’ Institute for Journalism, Saif Al-Hadhari, former Minister of Information Ali Al-Umrani. Members of the Al-Jazeera Bureau and media spokesperson for the Reform party, Adnan Adini were also targets.

Members of Ansar Allah (Houthis) could not be reached for a comment.