Yemen: journalist Hala Badway released
All charges against Badway arising from social media posts in December 2021 have been dropped.
The National Union of Journalists has joined the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) in welcoming the acquittal of Yemeni journalist Hala Badway.
Badway was arrested and detained last year by the Yemeni military intelligence command after posting on social media calling for corrupt government officers to be held to account, and for improved living conditions in the country. In January, she was charged with "spying and communicating with foreign agencies", and was harassed because of her work as a journalist.
The Yemeni Journalists’ Syndicate condemned her arbitrary prosecution and has called on the Yemeni government and armed groups to release all jailed journalists.
Anthony Bellanger, IFJ general secretary, said:
“We welcome the release of our colleague Hala Badawi, who was arbitrarily arrested for simply doing her job. Justice has been done in her case, but there are still many journalists imprisoned in Yemen, some of them on death row for carrying out their journalistic duties. We renew our call for the immediately release of all journalists detained in the country.”