The international Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has threatened the Yemen's internationally recognized government to hold it accountable if it continues its current approach of not paying Yemeni journalists salaries that have been suspended for nearly three years.
This was stated by the Secretary-General of the International Federation of Journalists Anthony Bellanger in a statement issued by the Federation on Wednesday, in which holds the Yemeni "legitimate" government responsibility for the deterioration of the situation of journalists and media workers in government institutions in Yemen because of the cutting of salaries for more than two and a half.
The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has called on the Yemeni government to take urgent action to pay the salaries of journalists working in state-owned media institutions, which have been suspended for three years and face a severe humanitarian crisis.
The Federation said in its statement that nearly 1,000 journalists working in public information institutions (television, radio and newspapers) living in the areas controlled by the Houthis (Ansar Allah) suffer from a humanitarian crisis and stifling living conditions that threaten their lives and the lives of their families.
The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) Secretary-General Anthony Bellanger said that "the Yemeni government's continued failure to pay journalists' salaries is completely unacceptable" and called on the government to put an immediate end to this policy.
Bellanger stressed if the legitimate government continues its current approach, the IFJ will work to ensure that the Yemeni government is held accountable for its failure to respect its workers' contracts, as stipulated in international treaties and ILO conventions.
Yemeni journalists living in one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world, according to the United Nations, face many risks that limit their work in the context of the civil war of regional dimensions, resulting in the deaths of more than 30 journalists and the injury of dozens of others over the past years. Hundreds of journalists have been forced to leave the country as a result of threats to them.
The war and the ensuing economic crisis have led to the breakdown or collapse of most media institutions and the loss of thousands of press jobs in the country.
The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) statement comes in response to calls by journalists and media workers in Yemen for continued salary cuts in Houthi-controlled provinces in the north of the country.
