FM radio frequency gets hijacked in Sana’a

Someone in Sana’a has been pirating an FM frequency to evangelize.

A short-wave radio broadcast has been broadcasting illegally in Sana’a by hijacking the 88.3 FM frequency. The broadcast delivers a Christian missionary message in the Arabic language without having any license or permission from the responsible authorities such as the Ministry of Information, says Abdullah al-Dailami the head of Sana’a Radio. The illegal broadcast has been playing for about two weeks, not continuously, and mostly appears in the evenings.   The technical and engineering section at Sana’a Radio has identified the location of the source of this broadcast.

It is coming from a house in one of the capital’s residential zones, though he declined to be more specific. “They use a small FM instrument that only broadcasts over a short distance and it cannot exceed the capital’s borders,” he said. “After we identified the area and the house as the source of this broadcast, we informed the concerned bodies, such as the Ministries of Interior and Foreign Affairs, to take the appropriate measures,” he said.    The Ministry of Information followed the correct procedures by identify the source and location of the FM radio broadcast and then reporting its findings to the security and the responsible authorities, said Hassan al-Lawzi, the Minister of Information.

The duty of Sana’a Radio and the Ministry of Information is just to identify the source of the broadcast, and report it to the responsible authorities, al-Dailami said. “This broadcast should be stopped because it has been broadcasting its program illegally and randomly for the past two weeks,” said Mohammed al-Saman, the head of the engineering and technical unit at Sana’a Radio. “Any illegal or non-compliant radio broadcast should be stopped because it violated the law. Such activity is considered to be a kind of theft.”   

The broadcast’s radio wave is very weak and is restricted to only one district in the city. “Because it is a wireless broadcast we are technically unable to stop it. Our mission is only to identify its source and the security authorities will complete the necessary procedures,” he said. Colonel Ahmed al-Sinaydar, the Head of the Office of the Minister of Interior said that the ministry had received a report from the Ministry of Information saying that there was an illegal short-wave radio broadcast based in the capital, Sana’a.

“This report was just news-y, about the existence of this broadcast.”  The ministry had not received any order to stop this broadcast or to arrest the people responsible for it, he said. That order would come from the relevant authorities such as the police or the public prosecution among others.   “Then the report was transferred to the Mayor of Sana’a and the Ministry of Information to inform them of the details of this case. And if this case needs a security involvement, we will respond immediately,” he said. The Secretary General of the Sana’a local council, Ameen Juma’an, said that the matter was out of the local council’s jurisdiction.

“We are only an authority that performs its duties that are related to the local council. The local council is not a disciplinary body that would execute such orders and activities,” he said. “We do not have any idea about this issue; those responsible for it are the Ministries of Interior and Information,” he said. The Ministry of Information is the main body responsible for this case, and the Ministry of Interior is simply the disciplinary authority, said al-Sinaydar.

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