A freelance cameraman was shot dead on 21 March in Taiz city, southern Yemen, while covering clashes, the Yemeni Journalists’ Syndicate (YJS), an IFJ affiliate, reported. The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), representing 600,000 journalists in the world, backs the YJS' demand for the perpetrator to be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.
According to the YJS, Mohammed al-Yemeni, a freelancer for several media outlets in Yemen, was killed by a sniper on Monday 21 March in Taiz, the country’s second most populated city. Three other cameramen, Naef Wafi, Haikal al-Uraiki and Abdulqawi al-Azzani, were also wounded in the gunfire, the YJS added.
“The union holds the Houthis responsible for this crime which is added to the series of violation of journalists’ rights in Yemen,” said the YJS in a statement. “We remind that these crimes will not be forgotten and the perpetrators will never enjoy impunity”.
The IFJ stands up by its affiliate, the YJS, and the whole journalists’ community in the war-torn country and asks them to be very cautious on the ground.
“We condemn the killing of Mohammed al-Yemeni, another media worker who paid the ultimate price for doing his work. Our condolences go out to the family of Mohammed,” said IFJ President, Jim Boumelha. “We once again urge the warring parties to stop their systematic targeting of journalists trying to cover this never-ending conflict and will do our utmost so that the perpetrators of all the crimes and violations against them in Yemen are prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. We finally call on Yemeni media to provide safety equipment to their field reporters and on journalists to be cautious when reporting from the front lines.”
Al-Yemeni is the fifth media worker killed in 2016 after the killing last 16 February of another cameraman,
Ahmed al-Shaibani, working for Shabab TV, who was also shot dead by a sniper while covering clashes in Alhasb, a suburb west of Taiz city.
Almigdad Mojalli, a Yemeni freelance journalist, was killed on 17 January in a raid by the Saudi-led coalition in the capital, Sana’a, while covering air strikes.
The IFJ and the YJS also denounced that
two local media workers, journalist Monir al Hakeimi and administrative TV staff Suad Hajerah, and their three kids were killed on 9 February in Sana'a after their house was bombed allegedly by a Saudi led coalition’s air strike.
The YJS estimates that 17 journalists remain detained by different warring parties since the beginning of the conflict. Last year, 10 journalists and media workers lost their lives while on work in Yemen, according to
IFJ statistics.
Read more about the Yemeni media safety crisis
here.
For more information, please contact IFJ on + 32 2 235 22 16
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