Attacks on the Yemen media are on the rise, according to Khaled Al-Hammadi, a well-known Yemeni journalist and recent founder of Freedom Foundation, a Sanaa-based NGO set up to promote press freedom and development in Yemen.

Al-Hammadi, 2011 winner of the International Press Freedom Award from the Toronto-based group Canadian Journalists for Free Expression, told IPI that after winning the award he felt it was his “responsibility” to help other journalists.

“There are attacks every day and every week, despite the new regime,” Al-Hammadi said, adding that journalists are often threatened or unable to work in certain areas as a result of the instability.

In response, the organization he established has set up a hotline for any media violations. As well as monitoring and promoting press freedom, the Freedom Foundation also seeks to defend and protect the media by providing legal aid and healthcare to all journalists and other media workers, as currently only press and print journalists are insured, Al-Hammadi told IPI.

There is certainly a need for more advocacy and greater protections, as recent assaults against journalists and media houses in the country show.  Former President Saleh may have been replaced, but the government has proven unable to exert authority everywhere, as bloody battles with Al-Qaeda affiliated groups, an insurgency in the North and calls for separation by the South show. And the instability takes its toll on the journalists covering it.

Indeed government authorities are among the attackers, according to recent reports from the Yemen Syndicate of Journalists. YJS reported that Ammar Mohammed Abdullah Saleh, the Deputy Chief of the National Security Service and nephew of the former President, has allegedly threatened to take action against the management of Al Ahali newspaper and website, which the YJS fears could mean violent retaliation.

In a separate attack, National Security Service official allegedly attacked Fawaz Monassar, a journalist for Agence France-Presse. According to YJS, three armed men and a fourth National Security Service and counterterrorism official broke into Monassar’s home and beat him, even threatening to kill him.

Most recently, Muhammed al-Maqaleh, editor of news website Aleshteraki, was attacked by armed men who beat him in the presence of the Yemeni defence minister, reports say. The reason for the attack is unclear, according to al-Hammadi, although al-Maqaleh told the Committee to Protect Journalists the attack was related to his criticism of armed factions of certain tribal groups.

Publications were also targeted in recent days, YJS reported. The group condemned an attack on a newspaper called Yamanat, which was fired on by unknown gunmen. Newspaper Akhbar Alyoum, frequent victim of censorship by military troops or armed men, again fell victim on 11 March when armed gunmen stopped a bus and forced the driver at gunpoint to surrender copies of the newspaper, which were later burned.

IPI Acting Deputy Director Anthony Mills said, “We urge the new government to prioritize the protection of journalists in the country by seriously investigating allegations of attacks against the press – particularly when it is security personnel who are implicated.”