Latest news with #SaraQudah
Business Recorder
25-07-2025
- Politics
- Business Recorder
Israel is starving Gazan journalists into silence: CPJ
NEW YORK: The Committee to Protect Journalists added its voice to Wednesday's urgent appeal from more than 100 aid agencies to end to Israel's starvation of journalists and other civilians in Gaza, as they called on states to 'save lives before there are none left to save.' 'Israel is starving Gazan journalists into silence. They are not just reporters, they are frontline witnesses, abandoned as international media were pulled out and denied entry,' said CPJ Regional Director Sara Qudah. 'The world must act now: protect them, feed them, and allow them to recover while other journalists step in to help report. Our response to their courageous 650 plus-days of war reporting cannot simply be to let them starve to death.' On Tuesday, CPJ launched its Voices From Gaza video series of Palestinian journalists describing their challenges working in Gaza. In the first video, Moath al Kahlout said his cousin was shot dead while waiting for humanitarian aid. As Israel partially eased its 11-week total blockade of Gaza in May, CPJ published the testimony of six journalists who described how starvation, dizziness, brain fog, and sickness threatened their ability to report.
Arab News
03-06-2025
- General
- Arab News
Houthis abduct 4 journalists, jail another for criticizing leader, says watchdog
LONDON: At least four journalists have been abducted and another jailed for criticizing the Houthis' leader, media watchdog the Committee to Protect Journalists said on Tuesday. Local reports claim freelance photographer Abduljabbar Zayad, Al-Araby Al-Jadeed reporter Hassan Ziyad, Soorah Media Production Center director Abdulaziz Al-Noum and deputy head of the Yemeni Journalists Syndicate Walid Ali Ghalib were abducted between May 21-23. On May 24, the Specialized Criminal Court in the Houthi-held capital Sanaa sentenced Yemeni journalist Mohamed Al-Miyahi t0 18 months in prison for criticizing Houthi leader Abdul Malik al-Houthi online. Al-Miyahi was also ordered to sign a pledge not to resume his journalistic work and to pay a guarantee of SR5 million ($20,500), which he would forfeit if he continued to publish material critical of the state. Regional director of the CPJ, Sara Qudah, condemned the actions and said: 'The kidnapping of at least four Yemeni journalists and media workers and the sentence issued against Mohamed Al-Miyahi exemplify the Houthis' escalating assault on press freedom. 'We call on Houthi authorities to immediately release all detained journalists and stop weaponizing the law and courts to legitimize their repression of independent voices.' The Yemeni Journalists Syndicate also condemned the kidnapping, calling it an 'arbitrary campaign targeting journalists and freedom of opinion and expression.' A statement released by the organization said: 'The syndicate considers these abductions a continuation of the approach of repression and targeting of journalists and opinion holders, and a hostile behavior towards freedom of opinion and expression, holding the Houthi group fully responsible for the lives and safety of the detained colleagues.' Al-Miyahi has criticized the Iran-backed Houthis in a series of articles, broadcasts and social media posts. In his last article, prior to his abduction in September 2024 and enforced disappearance for more than a month, he accused the group of suppressing freedom of expression and 'not respect(ing) people and treat(ing) them like mindless and unconscious herds.' In January he appeared in court accused of 'publishing articles against the state.' The YJS called the trial a 'sham (…) where the verdict was read aloud by the judge from a mobile phone inside the courtroom, violating the most basic standards of fair trial procedures.' The CPJ accused the Houthis, who control Sanaa and govern more than 70 percent of Yemen's population, of running a 'parallel justice system (…) widely seen as lacking impartiality' and argued Al-Miyahi's prosecution violated Article 13 of Yemen's press law, which protects journalists from punishment for publishing their opinions.
