Yemeni Media Union: Journalists in Sanaa are deprived from participating in international conferences

SANAA, Nov. 20 (YPA) – Secretary of the Yemeni Media Union Hassan Hammoud Sharaf al-Din on Monday confirmed that Journalists in Sanaa are deprived from participating in international conferences.

The move came in a statement to Yemen News Agency (SABA).

Dozens of journalists and media professionals have received in recent days invitations to attend international press and media conferences, but they were unable to participate in these conferences because of the continued siege and the closure of Sana’a airport, the union’s secretary general said.

He condemned the weak role of the United Nations with regard to rights and freedoms and its inability to pressure the forces of aggression to allow journalists and media professionals to travel abroad, as well as the entry of foreign journalists to Yemen as correspondents for international media.

“The ban on Yemeni journalists from travelling is a crime, especially since Sana’a International Airport receives three planes a day of the United Nations,” Sharaf Al-Din added.

He called on the international organizations concerned with media, rights and freedoms, especially the International Federation of Journalists, to show solidarity with the Yemeni media professionals regarding their restrictions on freedoms, siege, travel bans and direct targeting by the forces of aggression.

E.M