The last time Yemen erupted in protests, the government predictably went after the al-Jazeera cameras first thing. Now, Stacy Yadav reports,
In an attack that Al-'Arabiyya has called "attempted manslaughter,"the Dubai-based network's cameraman Mujib Suwaili was severly beaten by politice in Sana'a yesterday, leaving him hospitalized in serious condition, with three broken ribs and internal bleeding.
According to News Yemen, Naharnet, and al-Jazeera, Suwaili was in the process of documenting a workers' strike in front of a textile factory in the capital. He, along with Najib al-Sharabi of Saudi al-Akhbariyya, was injured when more than 200 police descended on the press corps covering the strike. In a characteristic Yemeni gesture, the workers briefly broke rank to aid the injured journalists, but were unable to prevent the detention of Suwaili and al-Sharibi. In custody, Suwaili reports that the officers who assualted him threated to kill him if he spoke about his attack.
This attack comes as part of the ongoing government campaign against journalists, particularly foreign correspondents. Official government papers have been publishing accuations that foreign journalists are, "agents of foreign intelligence networks." To be fair, the official government papers say this about a lot of people, not just journalists. In some cases, they call them foreign agents and then appoint them to important governement posts, so the currency of this accusation may be wearing thin.
One more instance of a trend... be helpful in the war on terror and you can repress the media as much as you like. The more powerful the Arab satellites become, the more they become a target. If the US really were serious about that whole Arab democracy thing, they'd be cutting fewer deals of the former kind, and doing a lot more to protect the Arab satellite television stations.
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