Statement Of The Yemeni Media Union On The Occasion Of The International Day For Ending Impunity

 The International Day For Ending Impunity comes will the Saudi coalition is still committing crimes against the Yemeni people for nearly four years of war on Yemen that made the biggest humanitarian disaster in the world according to the united nations reports.

The Saudi coalition committed serious violations against the media foundation in Yemen and killed by its airstrikes around 184 media member. Its last crime against media was in the last September, when its air force bombed Al-Hodeidah radio station, killing four of its employees and complete destruction of the building and its contents.

The victims are:

1. Omar Ezi

2. Ali Aish

3. Jomaei Abdullah Ali

4. Aid Hebah Jomaei

This crime comes in the context of a series of systematic violations committed by the coalition against journalists and media organizations in Yemen ignoring the rules of war and the international humanitarian law, which criminalize the targeting of journalists and the media, and treats them as civilian objects.

The Yemeni Journalists Union has monitored dozens of violations that have affected the Yemeni media since the launch of the Al-Hazm storm operations led by the Saudi coalition on March 26, 2015, which included deliberate killing, blocking, banning, obscurantism, etc., while the United Nations and its organizations remains substandard.

In the language of numbers, the coalition’s air raids killed 184 journalists and workers in the Yemeni media institutions, and destroyed about 30 transmission stations and radio and television broadcast in a number of provinces, also blocked a number of national and official satellite channels more than once, and copied some of them. The coalition also closed some Yemeni websites and  prevent them inside and outside Yemen.

In addition, many media outlets have been suspended due to the blockade and the economic crisis, forcing dozens of journalists to work in other jobs, and others have been forced to seek refuge outside the country. The economic and humanitarian situation of the media in Yemen has been exacerbated because that hundreds of workers in the official sector have not received their salaries for two years, just like the rest of the state and public sector.

 In parallel, the coalition has blocked the arrival of dozens of international journalists to Yemen, which doubled the media blackout of crimes committed in our country, even described as “the forgotten war.” Even the few journalists who were able to enter Yemen were harassed before they wrote or published humanitarian reports on Yemen’s situation in the context of war and siege.

Accordingly, Yemeni Journalists Union Calls The International Organization To:

1. Establish an independent international commission of inquiry to consider the crimes committed by the Coalition against the Yemeni media and refer the perpetrators to the International Criminal Court.

2. The inclusion of all governmental and private media sites within the united nations protected areas.

3. Intervention with the International Alliance to lift the air embargo on Sana’a airport, and allow traveling to Yemeni and international journalists, and provide them protection.

4. 3- Recommending the United Nations’ humanitarian organizations to support the Yemeni media sector at home and abroad and alleviate their suffering.

Issued By The Union Executive Office

 November 2nd 2018