Geneva – SAM for Rights and Liberties stated that World Press Freedom Day, observed annually on May 3, comes this year while journalism in Yemen is experiencing one of its harshest and most dangerous phases. This is due to ongoing repression, the multiplicity of de facto authorities, and the widening scope of violations targeting journalists and media workers across the country. These violations include arbitrary detention, enforced disappearance, torture, unfair trials, threats, incitement, bans on coverage, and even killings and direct targeting.
The organization explained that the state of press freedom in Yemen is no longer merely a byproduct of war but has become one of its tools. Conflict parties and multiple authorities use control over media as a means to dominate the public sphere, restrict the flow of information, impose a single narrative, and pursue any independent or critical voice. This reality reveals a deep structural crisis that threatens society’s right to knowledge, silences victims, and prevents public awareness of the truth about what is happening in the country.
SAM pointed out that the 2026 World Press Freedom Index, issued by Reporters Without Borders, ranked Yemen 164th out of 180 countries, reflecting the severity of the media environment. The report also noted that armed conflicts in countries such as Yemen, Sudan, and Iraq were among the main reasons for the deterioration of press freedom.
The organization emphasized that this ranking is not merely a number but summarizes years of systematic restrictions on journalism, where media work in Yemen has become a high-risk profession. Journalists pay a heavy price simply for carrying out their professional duties—documenting events, asking questions, exposing violations, and conveying the suffering of civilians.
SAM added that the Yemeni Journalists Syndicate documented 127 violations against journalists and media workers during 2025, between January 1 and December 31. These included various professional, legal, physical, and economic violations, indicating the continued fragility of the media environment and the collapse of necessary legal protections.
The organization confirmed that violations against journalists in Yemen are no longer linked to a single party or region but have become a recurring practice among all conflict parties and de facto authorities. International organizations, including Human Rights Watch, have documented serious violations against journalists and media institutions by multiple actors, including the Houthi group, the Southern Transitional Council, and the internationally recognized Yemeni government.
In areas controlled by the Houthis, several cases illustrate how detention and trials are used as tools to suppress journalism. Journalist Mohammed Al-Miyahi was abducted and forcibly disappeared for over a month after criticizing the group, before being sentenced to 18 months in prison and banned from practicing journalism. The Committee to Protect Journalists also documented the abduction of other journalists, including Walid Ali Ghaleb, Abduljabbar Ziyad, Hassan Ziyad, and Abdulaziz Al-Noum in Al-Hodeidah governorate in May 2025.
SAM noted that a number of recent cases indicate a rise in violations and continued restrictions on press freedom across various areas of control, demonstrating that targeting the media is no longer confined to a single party or region but has become a widespread pattern threatening journalism as a whole. Among these cases are journalist Majed Zayed, who was released after three months of detention; writer Mohammed Al-Miyahi, who was released after one and a half years of detention; the arrest of journalist Hammoud Hazaa in Marib; the detention of journalist Abduljabbar Bujaber in Hadramout; and the abduction of journalist Adel Al-Nazli in Mocha. These incidents reveal, through their geographic spread and the parties involved, the expanding risks facing journalists in Yemen and the absence of a unified legal and institutional framework that guarantees press freedom and protects media workers from persecution, detention, and retaliation.
In Aden, the case of journalist Naseh Shaker stands out as an example of prolonged detention outside legal safeguards. The Committee to Protect Journalists and its partners have called for his immediate and unconditional release after more than two years in detention. This case confirms that restrictions on press freedom are not limited to Houthi-controlled areas but also extend to regions under the Southern Transitional Council and other authorities.
SAM expressed deep concern over escalating deadly risks faced by media workers, noting that an Israeli airstrike on a media complex in Sana’a on September 10, 2025, resulted—according to the Committee to Protect Journalists and international reports—in the killing of 31 journalists and media workers, making it one of the deadliest attacks on journalists in recent years. The organization stressed that journalists are protected under international humanitarian law as long as they do not directly participate in hostilities, and that targeting them or tolerating their killing constitutes a grave violation that entrenches a climate of impunity.
The organization emphasized that free journalism is the first line of defense for human rights, as it exposes violations, monitors authorities, conveys civilian suffering, and gives victims a path to justice through truth. Therefore, targeting journalists is not merely an attack on individuals practicing a profession but a direct assault on society’s right to knowledge, on collective memory, and on the possibility of building a just peace based on accountability rather than the erasure of crimes.
SAM stated that the continued detention of journalists due to their opinions or professional work, and the denial of their basic rights, constitutes a blatant violation of legal and humanitarian obligations. It also reveals the use of the judiciary and security apparatus as tools to punish freedom of expression and silence independent voices, rather than institutions meant to protect rights and ensure justice.
The organization affirmed that impunity remains one of the main drivers behind ongoing crimes and violations against journalists, as the absence of accountability encourages perpetrators to persist and fosters a climate of fear and self-censorship within the media community. This has forced many journalists to flee, leave the country, or abandon the profession under pressure from threats and persecution.
SAM called on all parties to the conflict and de facto authorities in Yemen to immediately cease all violations against journalists and media workers, to unconditionally release all those detained due to their opinions or journalistic work, to reveal the fate of the forcibly disappeared, and to stop using the judiciary and security forces as tools of retaliation against journalists and opinion holders.
The organization also called for reforming the legal and institutional environment governing media work in line with international standards on freedom of opinion and expression, ensuring legal and professional protection for journalists, strengthening the independence of media institutions, and halting incitement and defamation campaigns that expose journalists to further risks.
Finally, SAM urged the international community, the United Nations, the Office of the UN Special Envoy for Yemen, and UN mechanisms concerned with freedom of expression to exert genuine and effective pressure to protect journalists in Yemen and activate accountability mechanisms against those responsible for serious violations. It stressed that protecting journalism in Yemen is not merely a professional issue but a fundamental condition for safeguarding truth, preserving memory, supporting victims, and confronting impunity.