Yemen and Houthis: A new war presents new challenges for war correspondents

A new war has begun in the world: the United States and Great Britain struck the Houthis in Yemen. After the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, the war in the Middle East (Israel-Gaza), this new conflict is shifting the attention of the international media and their experienced war correspondents to Yemen.

The United States and Britain launched air and sea strikes against Houthi military targets in Yemen in response to the movement’s attacks on shipping in the Red Sea, in a dramatic regional expansion of Israel’s war with Hamas in Gaza.

As witnesses in Yemen confirmed to Reuters explosions across the country, President Joe Biden warned in a statement late Thursday that he would not hesitate to take further action if necessary.

Reuters publish some details about the Iran-backed group. The translation can be found on the Radio Liberty website.

At the same time, media experts are already expressing fears that if the new conflict drags on, it may become a new risk factor for war correspondents.

As earlier reported, the human rights organization Press Emblem Campaign has recently published the sad results of 2023 – “Of the 140 media workers killed in 28 countries, at least 81 were killed in the Gaza Strip since October 7 (106 according to the Gaza Strip, the discrepancies in the numbers are explained by the difference in qualifications of the journalistic profession).

All of them were Palestinians, and most of them worked for several media outlets, including foreign ones. They were killed in Israeli strikes, often in their homes, along with their family members.”

Details of the PEC human rights report are published by the Ukrayinska Pravda online publication:

• Four journalists were killed during the war in Ukraine (1 Italian, 1 French, and 2 Russian), as well as four journalists were killed in Israel.
• Nine journalists were killed in Mexico and five – in Guatemala.
• Three victims among journalists were recorded in each Cameroon, India, Lebanon, and Pakistan,
• Two victims in each Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Haiti, Nigeria, the Philippines, and the United States of America.
• One killed journalist was recorded in each of the following countries: Argentina, Canada, Colombia, Egypt, Honduras, Lesotho, Mali, Mozambique, Paraguay, Rwanda, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Egypt.

The Middle East accounts for 64% of cases or 90 deaths, followed by Latin America with 20, Asia with 12, Africa with 11, Europe with four, and North America with three.

The organization notes that 2023 has become the deadliest year for journalists in the last ten years.

Compared to 2022 (116 dead), the year of the start of the full-scale war in Ukraine, the increase in the number of victims is slightly more than 20%. In 2012, the deadliest year since the beginning of the century, 141 journalists were killed (35 of them during the war in Syria).

Additional information: according to Reporters Without Borders’ annual report, 45 journalists were killed in the line of duty during the 11 months of 2023, compared to 61 a year earlier. In addition, at the end of December, the National Union of Journalists of Ukraine (NUJU) reported that four civilian media workers were killed while performing their professional duties in Ukraine. Another 25 media workers died during military service.