Information Ministry releases first issue of Abwab Magazine

The Ministry of Information released on Sunday the premier issue of Abwab magazine after it was detained for a second time for five days at Sana’a airport, said a source in the Yemeni Media Group. The release of the publication comes as a result of vigorous efforts by the Yemeni Journalists Syndicate.

The magazine was detained for the second time upon its return from printers in Dubai last Wednesday where it was sent to have the originally planned cover photo of President Ali Abdullah Saleh changed. It was seized by representatives of the Ministry of Information, who requested verification of the magazine’s permit of ownership.

The Undersecretary of the Ministry of Information, Mohammed Shaher, said that the ban on Abwab magazine was due to a violation of Yemeni printing laws, because it had been printed outside of Yemen, and that the publisher was actually the Yemeni Media Group. “Legal authorization had been granted to Nabil al-Sufi, the publisher and editor-in-chief of the magazine on condition that it be printed in moral guidance print [the officially-approved government print],” Shaher said.

Shaher confirmed that they allowed distribution of the magazine after intervention from the Yemeni Journalists Syndicate and the commitment of its chief editor, al-Sufi, to publish legally in subsequent issues.

Al-Sufi disputed the statement of the Undersecretary of Information, and said that the magazine did not mention the owner and publisher as the “Yemeni Media Group”, but was published under the name of “Nabil al-Sufi”.

He wondered if the name of the media group caused the sensitivity of the Undersecretary, despite the fact that it is his mission to support the media profession. “The [Yemeni Media] Group is a commercial institution founded in accordance with the Trade Law, but the magazine did not say it is the publisher of it,” al-Sufi said.

Regarding the change in location of printing, al-Sufi said, “We sent a notification [of the change] to the Ministry, but the Undersecretary of the Information Minister refused to adopt it and requested a directive from the Minister, who promised to consider the matter and consult with his agent.”

Al-Sufi stated that Undersecretary Shaher had told him that printing outside of Yemen meant that the magazine would be dealt with as a foreign publication, and would be required to submit five copies to the Ministry for it to review and decide whether distribution would be permitted in Yemen or not.

He contacted the Yemeni Journalists Syndicate for their assistance in solving this problem.   

The Abwab magazine re-printed its first issue due to the cover picture being considered by censorship authorities “offensive to the President of the Republic”. Magazine staff asserted that the image was transferred from official media sources.

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