Yemen's warring parties, including the Houthis, the Southern Transitional Council (STC), and the Yemeni government have committed serious human rights violations against journalists and media institutions in Yemen, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today.
The 59-page report, "'We Pray to God by Torturing Journalists': Warring Parties' Systematic Violations Against Journalists and Press Freedom in Yemen," documents the warring parties' wide range of violations against journalists and media institutions, including the widespread use of arbitrary detention, enforced disappearances, torture, and other inhuman treatment. The authorities on all sides of the conflict have also carried out broader violations against Yemenis' right to free expression and against the media, including seizing media organizations, intimidating and harassing media workers and obstructing their movement and work.
"Warring parties' repeated attacks on journalists and media institutions have threatened the lives of dozens of journalists and have gravely undermined freedom of expression in Yemen," said Niku Jafarnia, Yemen and Bahrain researcher at Human Rights Watch. "The authorities in Yemen should be doing everything in their power to ensure people's basic needs and rights, rather than abusing and silencing those who are simply reporting what is happening."
Human Rights Watch interviewed 27 people, including 16 journalists, between October 2024 and May 2025. Human Rights Watch also reviewed and analyzed photos and documents related to the cases investigated, including official documents and court indictments, among other evidence.
Human Rights Watch documented 14 cases of abuses against journalists by the Houthis, the STC, and the Yemeni government, including five who were until recently or are currently arbitrarily detained since November 2023: three by the Houthis, and two by the STC. Four were forcibly disappeared.
In some cases, authorities detained the family members of journalists either in addition to or in place of the journalist, often holding them as leverage to coerce journalists to "confess" to bogus charges or to stop them from carrying out their work.
Four journalists who were previously detained said they were severely tortured in prison, in addition to other forms of ill treatment. They said that they believed the authorities subjected them to more brutal treatment than other detainees to frighten them, and others, so that they wouldn't report on the authorities' abuses, mismanagement, and corruption.
Abdelkhaleq Emran, a released journalist, said that a Houthi prison authority told him that, "We pray to God by torturing journalists."
Warring parties' targeting of journalists and media institutions has encroached on freedom of expression in Yemen. Many journalists have fled the country due to the abuses they have faced, or their fear of abuse, by warring parties. Those who have stayed have often limited their reporting to avoid being targeted.
"Lubna Sadeq," a freelance journalist in Aden, said that she tried to hide her identity as a journalist when traveling through checkpoints because she fears the reaction of checkpoint officials if they discover her profession. "Even in my passport, my colleagues advised me to write my occupation as "student" to avoid getting into trouble at checkpoints," she said.
Nabil al-Osaidi, a board member of the Yemeni Journalists Syndicate, said that "The space for [journalistic] freedom has been shrinking." He, and others, said that the authorities have been conducting surveillance of journalists and detaining them for something as inconsequential as a social media post critical of authorities.
Many journalists have been killed in Yemen over the last 11 years of fighting, including likely assassinations by warring parties. However, there have not been adequate investigations to determine who was responsible in most instances Human Rights Watch documented.
