Yemen, land of freedom

from Freedomhouse.org

The state maintains a monopoly over the media that reach the most people—television and radio. Access to the internet is not widespread, and the authorities reportedly block websites they deem offensive. The government has pursued a concerted campaign to restrict press freedom in recent years. Journalists continue to face threats of violence, kidnapping, death, and arbitrary arrest, and often encounter unclear judicial processes. These violations increased amid 2006 election disputes and due to the February 2006 publication of Danish cartoons depicting the prophet Muhammad. The latter controversy led to the temporary closure of three publications—the Yemen Observer , Al-Hurriya , and Al-Rai al-Aam —and the detention of three journalists. Also in February, three journalists were sentenced to prison and banned from writing for six months for offending the president with articles about government corruption. In the weeks after the September 2006 elections, over 50 rights violations against independent journalists were recorded.

Article 103 of the Press and Publications Law outlaws direct personal criticism of the head of state and publication of material that “might spread a spirit of dissent and division among the people” or “leads to the spread of ideas contrary to the principles of the Yemeni Revolution, [is] prejudicial to national unity or [distorts] the image of the Yemeni, Arab, or Islamic heritage.” Although President Ali Abdullah Saleh called for an end to prison sentences for press offenses in June 2004, government authorities continued to use the Press and Publications Law to restrict press freedom.

Women are afforded most legal protections against discrimination and provided with guarantees of equality. In practice, however, they continue to face pervasive discrimination in several aspects of life. A woman must obtain permission from her husband or father to receive a passport and travel abroad. Unlike men, women do not have the right to confer citizenship on a foreign-born spouse, and the process of obtaining Yemeni citizenship for a child of a Yemeni mother and a foreign-born father is more difficult than that for a child born of a Yemeni father and a foreign-born mother. Yemen’s penal code allows lenient sentences for persons guilty of “honor crimes”—assaults or killings committed against women for alleged immodest or immoral behavior. Laws requiring that a wife obey her husband were abolished by presidential decree in 2004.

I have posted like these issues here ,so it is old fishion ,

Old news, yes, but news that shows the limits on freedom of the press in Yemen.

More free than the US? 

Brave yes, but not so free if they are jailed for printing cartoons. Not so free if they can be punished for criticizing the head of state. 

What about the freedom of women in Yemen. Better than in the US?

oh,

I imagine hakimi in a bomb shelter using the ZUSE Z3….

Yes, you're right. They are brave women fighting for freedom and rights they are currently denied. 

So…

Freedom of the Press   Yemen 0  USA  1

Women's Freedom       Yemen 0  USA  1

I'll let you choose the next area. 

Yes it's important. But it does not mean that Yemen has more freedom than the US, which is what you claimed. 

You were wrong.  

I believe gkisseberth can say anything bad about Israel ..heck he said that Mr B is an idiot moronic or something sounds like that. now how cool is that!

Israel SUCKS!!

how's that? 

now, let's see how long before the CIA gets here.

And for the record, I never called the leader of my nation those bad words. I just said that many other people have.

But here's what I think… Wait, let me get the doo

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