Yemen: IFJ and YJS launch a survey to assess the impact of a decade-long war on journalists

The last week of March marks the grim ten-year anniversary of the start of the conflict in Yemen. The country's ever-shrinking journalistic community is paying a high price, including extreme poverty due to low wages, widespread attacks, arbitrary detentions, and killings that remain unpunished. The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) together with its affiliate, the Yemeni Journalists' Syndicate (YJS), has launched a survey to assess the impact of this decade-long conflict on journalists and media workers.

Journalists and mourners lift placards and banners during the funeral of TV reporter Adib al-Janani who was killed in an attack on Aden airport, in Yemen's third city of Taez in January 2021. Credit: Ahmad Al-Basha / AFP

The ten-year-long war in Yemen between the Houthi movement and the Saudi coalition that backs the internationally recognised government affects all aspects of citizens' lives, including the journalistic community. Political instability has gone hand in hand with growing hostility towards the press, and journalists are paying a high price for this. The warring parties have turned Yemen into one of the worst places to be a journalist. Impacts include the dismissal of hundreds of media workers, incitement against journalists, censorship, shutdown of media outlets, kidnappings and reporters forced into exile.

According to IFJ and YJS data, at least 45 journalists have been killedin Yemen since 2014.

Consequently, the IFJ and the YJS are conducting a survey. It aims to shed light on the conditions of journalists and media workers covering the war as well as the state of media freedom in the country. The survey will also explore the violence faced by women journalists, who are considered to suffer high levels of discrimination in their social and professional rights. The findings of the survey will inform a report, supported by the Norwegian Union of Journalists (NJ), which the Yemeni union will release on World Press Freedom Day, on 3 May.

The IFJ encourages journalists and media workers in Yemen and in exile to respond to the surveyto help assess the extreme situation on the ground.

Attacks on journalists and trade unionists

Yemen is not a safe country for journalists or trade unionists, asevidenced by the attackagainst Mohammed Shubaita, Secretary General of the YJS and Assistant Secretary General of the Federation of Arab Journalists (FAJ). In May 2024, Shubaita was shot while travelling in a vehicle with his relatives near the Ministry of Information in the capital, Sana'a. Fortunately, he survived the assault.

The activities of journalists' unions are constantly restricted. In February 2023, the journalists' union headquarters in Aden ー a governorate located in southern Yemen ー were stormed and seizedby armed men affiliated with the Southern Transitional Council of the Transitional Council (STC). The union was only allowedto resume operations in November 2024, after the IFJ condemned the arbitrary measures against the YJS and urgedthe government to reconsider its decision.

During a decade marked by horrific violations against the media, four journalists ー Tawfiq Al-Mansoori, Abdul Khaleq Amran, Akram Al-Waleedi and Hareth Humaid ー were released from detention in April 2023. This release was heartening news ー and a significant victory for all those organisations that had been relentlessly campaigningfor their liberation, including the YJS and the IFJ. The journalists had been sentenced to death by a Houthi court for their journalistic work and were freedas part of a prisoner exchange after spending eight years behind bars.

"We welcome this crucial work of promoting journalists' safety and defending their rights in one of the world's most hostile environments for journalists. The IFJ pledges its unwavering support to Yemeni journalists, and it will continue to stand shoulder to shoulder with their union, the YJS, which has been leading one of the longest fights to protect journalists' lives, freedoms and independence," said IFJ General Secretary Anthony Bellanger.

The IFJ urges the Yemeni government, as well as other armed groups, to stop intimidating and harassing journalists, and to immediately release all media workers in jail.