Source: Belqees Rights

A number of journalists held a protest in Marib governorate on the World Press Freedom Day, May 3, to demand the release of the abducted journalists in the Houthi militia detentions.

The abductees and detainees are exposed to torture, beatings, ill-treatment and poor conditions of detention, according to Yemeni Journalists’ Syndicate’s (YJS) and the Mothers of Abductees Association’s reports.

Belqees TV Channel reported in a press statement that three of its journalists were killed by Houthi militia, Abdullah Qabel, Abdullah Al-Qadery and Mohammed Al-Qadasy.

More than 14 journalists were detained and forcibly disappeared by Houthi militia three years ago and other 26 journalists were killed in the last four years, according to YJS.

YJS said also in its annual report that the Houthis militia is responsible for 68% of the total violations, while 18% are attributed to the government and its agencies. The other share of the violations are committed by unidentified parties, resistance movement based in Taiz, the Southern Movement, extremist groups, and the Arab coalition led by Saudi Arabia.

On another level, YJS also called for stopping the trial of Awad Keshmim in Hadramout, Yazid Al-Faqih, and Adnan Mustafa in Sanaa on the background of expressing their own views. They called on stopping all types of pressures to silence the press.

IFJ General Secretary Anthony Bellanger said: “We call on the United Nations General Secretary and his envoy to Yemen to take these outrageous violations seriously and urge all parties involved in the war in Yemen to enforce United Nations Security Council’s resolutions which protect journalists in Yemen.”