General Overview

The population of Yemen is approximately 20 million. More than 40% of them live in poverty and some 50% are illiterate. The economy is still dependent on a market system which allows governmental interventions and corruption (1).

Such miserable economic circumstances limited access to the internet due to the high cost of computer sets, access equipments and subscription. However, Yemen started using the internet in September 1996 in spite of the risks of investing in the internet in a state like Yemen . In its manifesto, the state-owned TeleYemen Company mentioned that it did not only provide internet service for money and trading, but also to provide the Yemeni people with such a vital service that may help in their countries development (2).

Internet and Telecommunications Sector

Yemen has two internet service providers TeleYemen http://www.teleyemen.com.ye and Yemen Net www.yemen.net.ye .

At the beginning of 2006, Yemen had some 1.3 million terrestrial phone lines and 110,000 internet subscriptions (3). There are in excess of 286 websites hosted by local service providers.

These low figures are partially a result of the lack of proper infrastructure. Thus both the number of users and the rate of growth of the internet in Yemen are much lower than in other states in the region, such as Saudi Arabia . However, the social and economic situation does not allow massive increase in the number of clients (4). Until recently, access to the internet was not allowed in Yemen except via Dial-Up or ISDN. However, Tele-Yemen recently launched an ADSL service (5). Despite the great advantages this service offers Yemeni citizens, the economic situation in Yemen means that only very few are able to take advantage of it and there are less than 2000 ADSL service subscribers (6).

The rate of computer usage has increased dramatically in Yemen from there being 36,600 sets in the whole Yemen in 2000 to some 250,000 in July 2005 (7). The economic situation also prevents Yemenis from spending long periods of time engaged in activities on the Web, which significantly limits the impact of the internet on the political and social life of Yemen .

Communication and Internet Law

The Yemeni Constitution prohibits interference in private life. However, this prohibition is ignored in practice in many different situations. The political security forces and the Ministry of Interior routinely search homes and private offices, control phone calls and read emails. In addition, there are wide spread interference in many other personal matters all of which are alleged to be based on security intelligence. It is important to note that these practices are implemented without any legal orders being issued and they are they done without judicial supervision (8).

With regard to freedom of expression and publishing, the Yemeni Constitution guarantees freedom of expression and freedom of the press "within the limits of the law". The Yemeni press is among the institutions that enjoy relative freedom in the Arab region despite the many difficulties it experiences. The Law on the Press and Publication No. 25/1990 regulates media activities in Yemen . The Ministry of Information supervises the application of its provisions. The Act gives the right to any Yemeni citizen, institution, political party, or group to publish newspapers and magazines. But the law stipulates that the financing of any of these publications from foreign bodies is prohibited. The Penal Code stipulates a penalty of five years in prison for those who "insult their state or state prominent figures" or publish "false information which may raise sedition and harm the unity of the country (9).

The Press and Publications Act of 1990 criminalize the "subjective criticism of the Head of State ... which lacks constructive criticism" and the publication of any "false information" that may spread "chaos and confusion" as well as the publication of any "false reports" aiming to harm any Arab country, friend, or their relationship with Yemen . As is clear, these stipulations which apply to traditional press and publishing via the internet are sufficiently broad that they can be adapted applied according to the desire and need of the government.

Censorship and Website Blocking

The government does not exercise general or violent prohibitions on the web. The policy of the government policy of banning the web is rather selective. It mainly focuses on the websites handling sensitive political issues or those that contradict the government. However, pornographic websites which the government use as there primary reason for justifying the censoring and blocking of websites are not blocked and can be accessed with little difficulty from within Yemen . Despite the government's assertion that it does not monitor the use of the Internet, Political Security Authorities read private emails according to many reports . The government does not impose general blocking on websites like many other Arab countries, it only prohibits access to certain websites (10). This leads to problems suffered by users in Yemen which is blamed either upon the censorship imposed or upon the inefficient workers in the competent Ministry of Communications in Yemen (11).

According to the reports issued by international human rights organizations, Yemen replaced the direct and public control of the internet with indirect restrictions. The government monopolized services provision and kept the price of access to the internet very high so that many citizens are unable to afford to use it (12).

In the context of the continuing state monopoly of internet services, private companies are not allowed to provide the service to date. In October 2005, the State raised the tariff rate of terrestrial phone lines and internet services by 50% (13). The increase in prices contradicts the official government statements that claim to be promoting the spread of modern means of communication in order to power Yemen 's economic growth. Such decisions also contributing to decrease the incentives that ordinary citizens have to using the internet. However, the increase in price did not continue as the cost of Internet service subscription decreased from 18 riyals per minute (14) (one dollar=192 riyals) to only one riyal per minute (15). The cost of subscription to ADSL service provided by Super Yemen Net is 5600 riyals per month (16), which would increase demand for the service in the coming years

The state-owned Yemeni internet service provider companies announced their website blocking policy. Yemen Net company asserted that it "block what contradicts belief and traditions as well as national dominance" (17). This statement is clearly open to an overwhelming number of definitions and may be used to include thousands of different websites.

TeleYemen Company established dozens of terms and conditions or hosting a website on its providers. These conditions contain provisions that the website must not include any immoral content, any material that may contradict the Quran or the Prophet Muhammad's teachings, or Islamic legislation in general. The websites should also not contain any materials that may cause national disunity or encourage sectarian or ethnic disputes. They should not include information that may offend the history and culture of Yemen or material that may negatively affect its relationships with other countries worldwide (18). Although this definition is far more detailed that the one provided by Yemen Net it again can be applied to virtually any website that the government wishes to block.

TeleYemen also informs the authorities of any ‘illegal' use or attempted use of its services. The company also has the right to censor the contents of the page browsed by the customer in any way it deems appropriate.

In addition to the problems relating to prices and monopoly of service by state-owned companies, the network suffers frequent breakdowns. These lead to pauses in the broadcasting of news websites and prevent users from accessing the internet. The service providers claimed that these are merely technical breakdowns. However, websites administrators have asserted that these breakdowns are deliberately designed to prevent visitors from access to their websites. A few months ago, internet service was stopped in Yemen for several hours because of what officials called a malfunction in the main cables. This suspended news websites from updating their news. Also, several websites was negatively affected such as Ray News www.raynews.net , News Yemen http://www.newsyemen.net , Al-Wasat newspaper http://www.alwasat-ye.net , and Journalists' Syndicate (19). As usual, TeleYemen Company denied its involvement in stopping the service. It rather blamed hosting companies abroad for this, which was proved to be untrue (20).

Yemen like other Arab countries has adopted blocking and censorship policies which the government claims are in order to preserve "moral" values by blocking certain websites. However, not only these websites are blocked, some political and cultural websites are also blocked.

Despite the government's insistence that it does not censor or block websites' contents, a significant number of reports show this claim to be false. Al-Tagheer.net website http://www.al-tagheer.net was blocked on Sunday 23 April 2006 . The chief editor of the website said that the company hosting his website called Yemen Hoft attributed the problem to the company's service provider Yemen Net, which in turn, denied that it blocked the website (21). The chief editor said that their website was accessed through TeleYemen and from outside Yemen .

A similar incident was experienced by the Nass Press website http://www.nasspress.com . The administrators claimed that they have not been able to access their website since 24 April 2006 and that the website suffered intermittent blocking before it was blocked completely for no clear reasons (22). This forced the chief editor of the website; Abdul Basset Al-Ka'edy to accuse internet provider with being the reason behind such blocking after the hosting company asserted that it does not have any problems. The most serious part is that Al-Ka'edy accused Yemen Public Telecommunications Corporation (PTC) with conducting experiments to discover the best effective methods to block certain websites. As usual, Internet Manager at PTC denied this (23).

The owner Hdr Mut web site, www.hdrmut.net , said that his website was blocked within Yemen even though it includes precedent Sunni Islamic materials. The reason why it was blocked was because of the posting of just one political topic. The website owner with the pseudonym Abu-Hadhram said that he contacted many officials to try and have the site unblocked for almost one year in vain (24).

The blocking of the website is not permanent, as can be seen by internet users from inside of Yemen as it could be accessed at some times yet at others it could not be accessed. Blocking itself differs from one providing company to the other according to blocking mechanisms used by each of them (25). This is customary in Arab countries where more than one company provides the service.

Even during the running of the first presidential elections authorities worked hard on limiting citizens' freedom online.

Among the websites blocked by authorities was Al-Mostakela forum www.mostakela.com . It is a traditional text web forum which was blocked by the government on 18 September 2006 , only two days prior to the elections. Also, Nass Press website www.nasspress.com was blocked because of the large number of posts on it that critized Saleh on it. It was blocked from 13 September to 24 September 2006 . Hewarye website www.hewarye.com was also blocked although all the opinions posted on its pages support the Yemeni president (26). The blocking was also extended to Yemeni Council website www.al-yemen.org and Yemen Sound website www.yemen-sound.com . They are independent websites which provides space for discussion, particularly for Yemeni youth (27).

Open Net Initiative mentioned in a specialized report that the two internet service provider companies in Yemen use an American blocking technique called "Websense" and that Yemen Net company holds only 10.000 licenses for this technique, although it has 65 thousands subscribers. Therefore, the blocking is applied on the first 10.000 websites accessing the internet, simultaneously. Any additional user who access at the same moment can skip blocking mechanism (28).

The practical experiments conducted by Open Net Initiative staff proved that the rate of blocking and filtering increased in the period between 2004 and 2005 from 10% to 12% at TeleYemen, and from 6% to 14% at Yemen Net. The conclusions proved that the two companies blocked many pornographic websites and some Proxy websites (29).

Internet Cafés

Given the dire economic circumstances suffered by Yemeni citizens and the high cost of access to the internet, internet cafés are the sole means by which most Yemenis are able to access the internet, despite the traditional problems caused by the official authorities, the visitors of internet cafés suffer other sociological problems.

An official report claimed that there are some 1500 public internet cafés with average six computer sets per café. (30).

So far, conservative Yemenis are suspicious about internet cafés especially because most of the society looks at the disadvantages of the internet and disregard its advantages.

Since March 2006, the security forces issued general instructions for internet café owners urging them to write down the data of those who browse the internet, those who call them via the phone, and those who send faxes via their cafés. Security forces distributed printed forms to fill in such data, at least in "Al-Hadida" governorate (31).

Early in May 2006, in Al-Hadida governorate internet cafés was visited by a widespread security campaign which resulted in the arrest of large numbers of internet café and telecommunication shop owners. The official reason behind this crackdown was the failure of owners to comply with the minute instructions of registering the names and ID card numbers of their clients. Reports mentioned that authorities released 40 detainees, two days after the arrest, while the others are still under detention (32). They were later released.

In addition to frequent harassments against internet café owners by security forces, some internet café owners practice self-censorship on the activities of their clients. A internet café manager said that he censors the opening of pornographic websites and prevents it, and if the problem persists the client is forced to leave (33).

In a deeply conservative society such as Yemen , the increase in the number of internet cafés is of significant importance, particularly for females. However, the percentage of females visiting internet cafés in Yemen does not exceed 2%, according to the managers of these cafés (34). Although a different source said that the percentage has now increased to 10% (35). Nevertheless, the women who use the internet have to overcome numerous obstacles facing them given the deeply conservative nature of Yemeni society.

Many provisions are made by the state to regulate the interior workings of the internet cafes to limit the freedom of the users. This includes the banning of side barriers which separate the café clients and makes all the computer screens visible from different positions (36). By applying such conditions, the privacy of internet users is violated. Many internet cafe owners considered such actions and provision an intervention in the personal life of clients and that all users feel censored in internet cafés even while browsing one's email or writing a personal email (37).

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1-Human Rights Report on Yemen , 2004, by US Department of State, http://www.raynews.net/index.php?topmenuitem=hr/doc010 (visitd on 18 May 2006 )
2-The word delivered by the executive director of TeleYemen compay on the company policies, http://www.y.net.ye/arabicynet/ynet/letter.htm (visited on 15 May 2006 )
3-Mahdy El-Bahry, Saba News Agency, Yemeni Telecommunications: Huge Unexpected Figures, http://www.sabanews.net/view.php?scope=f69b5&dr=&ir=&id=112165 (visited on 25 May 2006 )
4-The Services of internet service provider Ynet company, http://www.y.net.ye/arabicynet/ynet/background.htm (visited on 15 May 2006 )
5-Mahdy El-Bahry, Saba News Agency, TeleYemen launches the new generation of access to internet, http://www.sabanews.net/view.php?scope=f69b5&dr=&ir=&id=104571 (visited on 18 May 2006 )
6-Mahdy El-Bahry, Saba News Agency, Increase in the number of internet subscribers, http://www.sabanews.net/view.php?scope=f69b5&dr=&ir=&id=103280 (visited on 18 May 2006 )
7-Ibid
8-Human Rights Report on Yemen , 2004, by US Department of State, http://www.raynews.net/index.php?topmenuitem=hr/doc010 (visitd on 18 May 2006 )
9-Sherif Mansour , Yemen , The Annual Report on Civil Society and Democratic Transformation in the Arab World, 2004, Ibn Khaldon Publications

10-Human Rights Report on Yemen , 2004, by US Department of State, http://www.raynews.net/index.php?topmenuitem=hr/doc010 (visited on 18 May 2006 )
11-Mohamed, a Yemeni citizen, 35 years old, email to HRinfo replying on research questions
12-Human Rights Watch Report on Human rights in Yemen in 2002, http://www.raynews.net/index.php?topmenuitem=documents/doc008 (visited on 21 May 2006 )
13-Ghamadan Al-Yousufy, Ray News Agency, http://www.raynews.net/index.php?id=1722 (visited on 21 May 2006 )
14-Mohamed Al-Gonied, 26 September Newspaper, Internet in Yemen , http://www.26sep.net/newsweekarticle.php?sid=2189 (visited on 15 May 2006 )
15-Ghamadan Al-Yousufy, Ray News Agency, http://www.raynews.net/index.php?id=1722 (visited on 21 May 2006 )
16-Saudi Al-Jazeer newspaper website, On 10 th July 2005 , the cost of internet services will be reduced to 30% in Yemen , http://www.al-jazirah.com.sa/digimag/10072005/hk25.htm (visited on 21 May 2005 )
17-Internet Yemen website, Why Internet Yemen , http://www.yemen.net.ye/index.php?q=background2 (visited on 18 May 2006 )
18-TeleYemen website, provisions of hosting internet services on internet server, http://www.y.net.ye/arabicynet/support/rules.htm (visited on 18 May 2006 )
19-Ray News website, Internet breakdown for the fourth time in five months, http://www.raynews.net/index.php?id=1601 (visited on 15 May 2006 )
20-Ibid
21-Al-Wahdawi.Net website, Al-Tagheer Editor in chief comment on blocking his website, 24 April 2006 , http://www.alwahdawi.net/narticle.php?sid=969 (visited on 21 May 2006 )
22-Al-Shoura.Net website, News on the experiments of telecommunication foundation in blocking websites http://www.al-shoura.net/sh_details.asp?det=2937 (visited on 21 May 2006 )
23-Ibid
24-Sawalif web forum, Abu Hadhram message, seeking help to unblock a website, http://www.swalif.net/softs/printthread.php?t=52621 (visited on 28 May 2006)
25-Ibid
26-Ibid
27-Yemeni Government Limits Freedom of Expression through Blocking independent websites, HRinfo, http://www.hrinfo.net/press/2006/pr0911.shtml (visited on 29 September 2006)
28-Open Net Initiative, intenet content censorship in 2004 and 2005, http://www.opennetinitiative.net/studies/yemen/ONI_Yemen_Country_Study_A... (visited on 25 May 2006)
29-Ibid
30-Al-Watan Newspaper, 27 June 2006, 100 thousand internet subscriber in Yemen , http://www.al-watan.com/data/20050627/index.asp?content=ecs8 (visited on 21 May 2006)
31-Ray News, 9 May 2006, a widespread arrest campaign against cyber cafes owners, http://www.raynews.net/index.php?id=2706 (visited on 21 May 2006)
32-Ibid
33-Saba News Agency, Searching for Sex and Love Online, Witness of a Cyber Café Manager Wael Abdullah, http://www.sabanews.gov.ye/mashahed/new_page_10.htm (visited on 25 May 2006)
34-Balqis Al-Hanash, Ray News, Internet is not for Yemeni Females yet, http://www.raynews.net/index.php?id=259 (visited on 18 May 2006)
35-Saba News Agency, Searching for Sex and Love Online, Witness of a Cyber Café Manager Wael Abdullah, http://www.sabanews.gov.ye/mashahed/new_page_10.htm (visited on 25 May 2006)
36-Gamal No'aman, Jordanian Al-Watan Newspaper, Yemen : Censorship Threatens Cyber Cafes with Bankruptcy and Closure, http://www.alwatan.com/graphics/2003/09sep/26.9/heads/et11.htm (visited on 15 May 2006)
37-Ibid