A number of press journalists have filed a lawsuit against the Yemeni Journalists Syndicate (YJS) represented by the head of the syndicate, his agents, the secretary-general, his aides and members of the executive council, demanding an end to the syndicate and the closure of its headquarters.
The syndicate’s council member Marwan Damaj said that the syndicate grants membership to those who comply with its requirements: holding a university degree and being an editor-level employee rather than a technician in a newspaper. "It is the right of any person to resort to the judiciary, and we do not prevent any person from pursuing this right," Damaj stated.
The lawsuit filed at the court demanded to speed the judicial procedure to the Ministry of Social Affairs and to force it to form a preparatory committee and an internal system of the syndicate according to the Press and Publications Law No. 25 of 1990 and under judicial supervision of the court.
The journalists who filed the lawsuit against the YJS are Ismail Abdel-Hafiz al-Absi, Abdul Hakim Tarsh al-Mogales, Ahmad al-Makosh, Ahmad Ghailan, Fadhel Saleh, Mohammad Dahan, Mohammad al-Gofi, Abdul-Qader al-Shater, Hanna Me'yad and others. They are known in the press field as they claimed in the lawsuit, and have all legal conditions to obtain journalist profession cards stipulated by the press law and which can be obtained through the YJS. The YJS, through what has been termed an alleged internal regulation, revised the definition of the journalist profession and the press, for the definition of the YJS was partially contrary to the definitions, meanings and connotations specified in the press law, the lawsuit claimed.