An opposition MP in Yemen said yesterday he will seek to have the information minister grilled in parliament over moves to block live satellite TV coverage of the deadly unrest in south Yemen. Information Minister Hassan al-Lawzi should be questioned over “the seizure of the transmission equipment of Al-Jazeera and Al-Arabiya,” Abdul Razek al-Hajari told a meeting in Sanaa.
Hundreds of journalists, parliamentarians and civil society groups gathered in Sanaa to show solidarity with the channels whose transmission gear was seized by the information ministry on Thursday. The ministry said the move was in response to the stations’ coverage of the deadly unrest in south Yemen.
The information ministry said the equipment was confiscated because it was being used without clearance from Yemeni authorities. Such equipment “should not serve to provoke trouble and amplify events in such a way as to harm public order, as has been the case with Al-Jazeera,” a ministry spokesman said.
But Saeed Thabet, deputy head of the Yemeni journalists’ union, insisted at the Sanaa gathering that the move was “illegal,” appealing for President Ali Abdullah Saleh to intervene and have it reversed. Other speakers charged that the government was trying to cover up its heavy-handed methods in the south, where unrest has been fired up by a secessionist campaign and charges of economic neglect.
(Source: AFP)
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