The Media Freedoms Observatory - Yemen announced that 100 cases of violations suffered by Yemeni journalists and media institutions were recorded during the first half of 2020. These violations have varied between killing, wounding, abducting, assaulting, threatening and targeting media institutions.

The Observatory expressed its condemnation of the continued arbitrary practices against the media by the parties to the conflict in Yemen, where the media scene has become marked by incidents of repression, violations and the ruling death sentences against journalists, as well as the feeling of the perpetrators that they are out of the hand of justice and punishment.

The violations varied between two cases of murder, 4 cases of a death sentence, 5 cases of abduction, one case of casualty, 7 cases of arrest, 3 cases of assaults, 8 cases of threats, 4 cases of suspensions, 5 cases of violations committed against media institutions and 61 other cases.

The report confirms that the Houthi group takes the first place of the list of violations against journalists with 61 violations out of the total recorded cases, while 28 cases of violation committed by the parties of the internationally recognized Yemeni government, two cases of violations committed by parties affiliated with the Southern Transitional Council, 7 cases of violations committed by unknown persons and two cases of abuse committed by influential officials.

The Media Freedom Observatory renewed its call to all the conflicting parties in Yemen to immediately stop targeting journalists and social media activists, stressing the need to hold perpetrators of these violations accountable as they are crimes do not lapse by limitation and their perpetrators will not escape punishment.