Explose device found in media building, amid growing threats to journalists

Reporters Without Borders is very concerned about a decline in the security situation for Yemeni journalists. In the latest incident, an explosive device was found and defused yesterday, 15 minutes before it was due to go off on the third floor of a building in the Yemeni capital that houses satellite TV station Yemen Shabab TV and Al-Masdar, a company that owns the daily newspaper Al-Masdar and the Al-Masdar Online news website. The Union of Journalists said the device consisted of 400 grams of explosive in a black plastic bag that was left on a window of the staircase leading to the third floor, where Al-Masdar is located. The police, who defused the device, are conducting an investigation. Freedom Foundation, a Yemeni organization that defends media freedom, said the device was found one day after Yemen Shabab TV broadcast a programme in which politicians and human rights activists appeared. An Al-Masdar newspaper distribution vehicle was stolen from outside the building on 13 April, four days before the incident. Reporters Without Borders hopes that the police will find out exactly who was behind the attempted bombing of these two news media, and urges the authorities to take all necessary measures to protect all media personnel working in Yemen. In another recent incident, three journalists working for the independent TV station Al-Suhail were attacked by armed individuals outside the station’s headquarters in Sanaa on 10 April. All three were hospitalized. On 9 April, the editor of the daily Al-Oula, Mohamed Ayish, reported having received more than 30 text messages from Yemeni and foreign phone numbers threatening to kill him, cut off his hand or cut out his tongue. Ayish and one of his reporters, Mohamed Al-Abassi, are being sued by the charitable organization Al-Islah over a report entitled “The new thieves” that accused Al-Islah of corruption. Nayef Houssan, the editor of the daily Al-Shari (The Street), and fellow journalist Nishwan Damaj were briefly kidnapped near the Saudi border on 4 April. They were freed after the authorities and a tribal leader interceded.