Yemen is the most dangerous area to practice journalism

The organization of “Reporters without borders” declared that, Yemen has become the most difficult and dangerous area to practice journalism, and stated in its international report for 2017 that, freedom of the press has never been threatened as it is today.

It declared that, it is dangerous in 72 countries including, China, Russia, India, almost all of the Middle East, Central Asia, Central America and two thirds of Africa. It also confirmed that, Yemen along with Syria have become dangerous places for whom ever wants to practice journalism.

The organization said that, monitoring and not respecting the secrecy of the sources made a lot of countries fall back concerning the freedom of press like, United States, Britain, Chile, and New Zealand, adding that, with Donald Trump being US president and the Brexit from the EU, journalism became a tool for violent speech and ground for fake news.

According to the organization, Boland backed to 54 in the list of countries that persecute press, Hungary to 71, Tanzania to 83, Turkey to 155 after the failed attempt to overthrown the president, Russia to 148, and Philippines to 127 after the decline in number of killed journalists in 2016, but the situation is getting worse especially after the threatens made by the president, Rodrigo Douterti directly to the press.

Secretary-General of the Organization Christoph Delaware said that, this transformation in democracies is disturbing anyone thinks that, freedom of the press is the basis of all freedoms, and six countries of ten witnessed setback in journalism compared to last year, when Scandinavian countries (Norway, Sweden, Finland and Denmark) came first, while Eritrea and North Korea came last, as the residents face arrest if they got caught listening to a foreign radio channel.

The organization added that, Egypt and Bahrain joined “List of journalists' prisons” which includes, Turkmenistan, Syria, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, Vietnam, Laos, Cuba, Sudan and Equatorial Guinea. It also talks about the situation in Middle East countries like Iran, which arbitrarily arrest journalists, and Saudi Arabia, which implements whip lashes.

While France came in 39, in a transitional progress after the submission it witnesses after Charlie Ebdou Massacre. It also added that, violence increased in France and businessmen use their own media to influence public opinion.

Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Yemen, Abdulmalik Al-Makhlafi confirmed on Tuesday that, all donations raised by Geneva Conference for the humanitarian crisis in his country will go to UN organizations, to help them implement their aid programs, adding in a tweet that, almost 1.1 billion dollars were raised.

He said that, GCC countries were first to donate including, Saudi Arabia, UAE and Kuwait, adding that the UN confirmed that, restoring peace is the real solution to end Yemeni suffering.

The Yemeni prime minister, Ahmed Obaid bin Dagher, foreign ministers, local administration, Yemeni ambassador in Geneva along with UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterich participated in the International Conference for Humanitarian response in Yemen, which only raised 1.1 billion dollars of the required 2.1 billion. Guterich asked for immediate action to save people in Yemen, warning that 50 child die every day due to the conflicts.

Famine is one of the severe problems facing the UN in Yemen, as 9 million persons out of 27.4 million need urgent food aids. This number increased in the last 6 months by 3 million compared to 2016. Although it just joined the list with African countries like, Somalia, South Sudan, and Nigeria, but Yemen became the “biggest humanitarian crisis in the world”, with population threatened to starve to death in the next six months.