Internet Enemies - Countries under surveillance: Yemen
| Publisher | Reporters Without Borders |
| Publication Date | 12 March 2009 |
| Cite as | Reporters Without Borders, Internet Enemies - Countries under surveillance: Yemen, 12 March 2009, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/4a38f97d16.html [accessed 8 June 2023] |
| Disclaimer | This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States. |
New is very tightly controlled by the information ministry, which in addition to monitoring the Internet, bans several mobile phone news services, including those by Nass Mobile or Bela Qoyod mobile, on the grounds that text messages cannot be properly controlled. Service providers prevent some Internet users from getting access to local news sites. The website Marebpress realised that its provider was blocking access to users with a "dial-up" connection. Users with ADSL and ISDN subscriptions can get access. TeleYemen (Y.Net), one of the country's main providers, reserves the right to "report to the competent authorities on any use or attempted use of Y.Net services breaking the law of the Republic of Yemen". The conditions of use of Y.Net also explain that "access to applications that allow transmission of video and audio files [...] represent an unreasonable use of the Internet network, that can affects its capacity, and is for this reason, banned".
Platforms such as Maktoobblog, YouTube, Facebook, Orkut, and Twitter, are however accessible because these rules only apply to websites hosted within the country. But, since 15 May 2008, some Yemeni news websites have not been accessible, such as that of al-Umma (The Nation), Yemen.net and al-Tagheer (The Change). They have been accused of posting articles dealing with social unrest and challenging government policy. Opposition websites have also been made inaccessible, such as al-Shoura (http://www.al-shoura.net) and forums of the Yemenite Council (http://www.al-yemen.org) and Yemen-Sound (http://www.yemensound.com), which are among the most popular in the country.
The website in support of Egyptian blogger, Kareem Amer, who has been imprisoned for more than a year for using his right of freedom of expression online, has also been inaccessible 28 January. The same applies to Yemen.net (http://www.yemenat.net/), after it posted a Human Rights Watch report and videos dealing with the plight of Yemeni emigrants who became casualties in a fire in Saudi Arabia.
At the same time, the government blocks access to software designed to get round censorship or "proxies", thus preventing Internet users from obtaining news. As in Bahrain, Yemen uses the US filtering software Websense to select news about the country.
