After they confiscated his radio station
The director and owner of the “Voice of Yemen” radio, Majli Al-Samadi, was attacked in front of his house in Sana’a by three people.
The attack occurred on January 1st but was only reported yesterday by the Yemeni Journalists’ Union. In a note, the union condemned the attack on the journalist Majli Al-Samadi, director and owner of the “Voice of Yemen” radio, in front of his house in Sana’a, by three people who also broke the windows of the his car.
Journalist Al-Samadi was beaten by a gang believed to belong to the Houthi group. The incident came a day after a Houthi court overturned a ruling that had ordered the return of the “Voice of Yemen” it owned, which had been confiscated by the group more than a year ago.
In a statement, the Journalists’ Union condemned in the strongest terms “these systematic violations against an unarmed journalist who claims his rights and adheres to his constitutional right to express his opinion”.
The union places “full responsibility for these intimidations” on “the de facto authority of Sana’a” (the Houthis), which began with the closure of the radio, then with the assault and looting of its headquarters and with the refusal to implement an initial court decision that the radio return to operation.
The Journalists’ Union confirmed that the state of impunity for those who attacked Al-Samadi in the two separate incidents is a message of intimidation aimed at all journalists working in areas controlled by the Houthis to silence any voices claiming their rights rights.
He called on all organizations concerned with freedom of opinion and expression, led by the Union of Arab Journalists and the International Federation of Journalists, to stand in solidarity with Al-Samadi and support his rights to retransmission and all his properties, and to find out and punish attackers and all violators of press freedom.
