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Yemen Times

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The Yemen Times
"To make Yemen a good world citizen"
Logo used since 2023
TypePhysical, and online
Founder(s)Abdulaziz Al-Saqqaf
Editor-in-chiefNadia Al-Sakkaf
Deputy editorAhlam Mohsen
Managing editorBrett Scott
Staff writers13 (2015)[1]
Founded1990
Political alignmentNone
LanguageEnglish
Ceased publication2015-04-09[2]
HeadquartersSana'a, Yemen
CitySana'a
CountryYemen
Websiteyementimes.com
Free online archivesThe Yemen Times archives

The Yemen Times (Arabic: يمن تايمز) was an independent English-language newspaper in Yemen.[3] The paper was published twice weekly.[4][better source needed]

History

[edit]

The Yemen Times was founded in 1990 by Abdulaziz al-Saqqaf, an economics professor at Sanaa University, along with two assistants. The Times was among the dozens of newspapers founded in the wake of the reunification of Yemen and the new prospect of a democracy. Saqqaf registered the newspaper with the Ministry of Information and was granted Licence Number 9.[5]

The first issue of the Yemen Times was published on 27 February 1991, focusing on Yemen and President Ali Abdullah Saleh’s stance of neutrality during the Gulf War, which had recently concluded. Reception to the first issue was generally positive, and within a few years the Times had become “Yemen’s most influential paper and the most successful commercially”, with numerous ministers, officials and politicians requesting interviews from it.[5][6]

The Yemen Times routinely focused criticism on corrupt bureaucrats as opposed to President Saleh himself in order to not draw the ire of the government. However, this strategy was not always successful, as in one instance, armed tribesmen led by the governor of Shabwah’s son gathered outside its office in protest after the paper had published an article exposing the governor for extorting money from local oil-related businesses. In another instance, the landowner of the Times’s office had invited its staff to lunch while Saqqaf was out of town before locking them out of the office, forcing them to find a new one.[6]

The Times remaioned in printing throughout the Yemeni civil war in 1994, though the paper faced distribution issues and its staff was forced to live in its office.[7][5] During the war the paper was primarily concerned with fact-checking government statements. In one instance, after the Northern government claimed to have shot down a Southern fighter aircraft, a photographer sent by the paper failed to find any wreckage in the area mentioned.[5] Saqqaf was briefly detained by authorities early in the war after the Yemen Times published allegedly inflated casualty figures.[7]

After the conclusion of the war, Saqqaf praised the reunification in the Times, and the paper organized a seminar on 14 July 1994 for "The Future of Yemen", in which it invited over 40 journalists from all three major political parties as well as smaller parties.[5] Despite agreeing to do so, journalists from the ruling General People's Congress as well as the Islah Party failed to arrive, though the seminar proceeded with audience members including Gulf diplomats, foreign researchers, and Yemeni scholars. A Gulf diplomat attendee descrbied hearing "nothing mildly treasonous" and "a lot of generalities." On 17 July, agents from the Political Security Organization kidnapped over 15 participants in the seminar, including Saqqaf, beat them and held them in solitary confidement before releasing them the next day.[7] The Yemen Times offices were also raided and its computers seized.[5][6] A week after Saqqaf published an account for his detention on the front page of the Yemen Times, security officers raided, but did not close, the newspaper's offices.[7]

Another English language Yemeni newspaper called the Yemen Observer was launched in 1996. Saqqaf saw the Observer, whose founder was presidential press secretary Faris Sanabari, as an attemt by the Yemeni government as an attempt to coopt the audience of the Yemen Times through a newspaper under government control.[5] On 1 July 1996, the Times accused the PSO of having control over the central post office and throwing away copies of the Yemen Times addressed to international readers. On 7 July, during a speech marking the second anniversary of the end of the civil war, President Saleh accused the Yemen Times along with southern newspaper al-Ayyam of "duboius practices" and stating that "I am directing an early warning to them because I know that the minister of information is hesitant to take legal measures against the papers ... but I shall take the appropriate measures at the appropriate time."[8] Saqqaf suspected that Saleh's comments may have been inspired by a recent copy of the Times in which it recalled how former president Ibrahim al-Hamdi had fought against corruption, in a subtle criticism of Saleh.[5]

Yemen Times was founded in 1991 by Abdulaziz Al-Saqqaf, a leading economist and human rights activist, who was also its editor and publisher until he died in a traffic accident in 1999. In the paper's mission statement, he wrote that: "We use the Yemen Times to make Yemen a good world citizen."[9] The paper is based in Sana'a.[10]

As of 2007, Nadia Al-Sakkaf was the editor-in-chief of the daily.[11] The paper has offices and correspondents all over the country. It supports press freedom, respect for human rights, political pluralism and democracy. It promotes non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and other forms of civil-society organizations. At the economic front, it supports liberalization and open interaction with other nations. The paper and its editor were awarded the NPC's International Award for Freedom of the Press for 1995.[9] In 2004, managing editor Iona Craig won the Martha Gellhorn Prize for her work with the paper.[12] The paper also won the Free Media Pioneer Award by the International Press Institute in 2006.[13]

The first national English-language Yemeni newspapers were published in 1960s in Aden. These were Aden Chronicle by Mohammed Ali Luqmān and The Recorder by Muhmmad Bā-Sharāhīl. The publication of these and their sister Arabic-language newspapers Fatāt ul-Jazīrah and Al-Ayyam ceased when the National Front for the Liberation of South Yemen (NLF) took power in the then People's Republic of South Yemen, (PRSY) (later known as the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen, PDRY) in 1967. The publication of Al-'Ayyam was resumed after the unification of the two sectors of Yemen in 1990.[14]

Since 2014, the newspaper was unable to continue issuing the printed version of the newspaper due to the Yemeni Civil War and was deemed defunct. The website said that it "hopes to resume when conditions permit.”[15] As of 2024, the newspaper’s website acts as an archive of its own publications.[16]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "Yemen Times Staff". 8 April 2015. Archived from the original on 8 April 2015.
  2. ^ "Yemen Times Homepage". 9 April 2015. Archived from the original on 9 April 2015.
  3. ^ Guardian Staff (5 February 2002). "World news guide: Middle East". The Guardian.
  4. ^ "Yemen Times newspaper online". Newspaperhunt (The Newspapers Search Engine). Archived from the original on 11 September 2022. Retrieved 11 September 2022.
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h Whitaker, Brian (17 February 2024). "Red lines in an accidental democracy: the struggles of the Yemen Times". Medium. Retrieved 26 March 2025.
  6. ^ a b c Whitaker, Brian (5 June 1999). "Abd al-Aziz al-Saqqaf". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 26 March 2025.
  7. ^ a b c d "YEMEN: HUMAN RIGHTS IN YEMEN DURING AND AFTER THE 1994 WAR" (PDF). Human Rights Watch. 1994. Retrieved 26 March 2025.
  8. ^ "MIDDLE EAST OVERVIEW" (PDF). Human Rights Watch. 1996. Retrieved 26 March 2025.
  9. ^ a b "About Yemen Times". Yemen Times. 18 April 2010. Archived from the original on 2 February 2012. Retrieved 14 December 2010.
  10. ^ "Independent newspapers in Yemen: Situation and future horizons" (Report). Yemen Polling Center. 10 May 2012. Archived (PDF) from the original on 11 September 2014. Retrieved 11 September 2014.
  11. ^ "Impressions from Beirut". The Arab Press Network. 22 June 2007. Archived from the original on 11 October 2007. Retrieved 9 September 2014.
  12. ^ "American Media Institute – Martha Gellhorn Prize for Journalism". American Media Institute. 22 April 2015. Archived from the original on 11 December 2015. Retrieved 23 October 2015.
  13. ^ "Free Media Pioneer Award". International Press Institute. Archived from the original on 15 March 2015. Retrieved 7 March 2015.
  14. ^ "Farouk Luqman to the Yemen Times: President Saleh is the best option for today's Yemen". Archived from the original on 29 September 2007.
  15. ^ "Wayback Machine". 18 January 2022. Archived from the original on 18 January 2022. Retrieved 30 March 2024.
  16. ^ "Front Page". Yemen Times. Archived from the original on 18 January 2022. Retrieved 30 March 2024.
[edit]
  • Official website
  • For a book review on Nushou' wa Tatawur Al-Sahafa fi Adan (the burgeoning and development of journalism in Aden), 1937–1967, by Abdulrahman Khobara (175 pages, published by Al-Amal for Printing and Publishing), see Yemen Times
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