Sana’a: A state-run Yemeni newspaper`s office is being occupied by armed men who kicked out the paper`s editors and journalists in order to reinstate the outgoing President`s picture on the front page.
Al-Thawra newspaper board member Mohamed Shabita says President Ali Abdullah Saleh`s loyalists took over the newspaper`s offices in the capital of Sana’a and brought in their own journalists. They published his picture on Sunday.
Hundreds of armed men loyal to Saleh also surrounded another state-run newspaper`s offices in the southern city Taiz last week, demanding the President`s picture be restored. The editors of the el-Gomhoreya paper gave in.
After months of street protests demanding his ouster, Saleh is set to transfer powers to his deputy later this month. Saleh is in New York for medical treatment.
Bureau Report
