VOA标准英语2010年-CPJ Decries Lack of Press Freedom in Y

（单词翻译）

A U.S.-based rights group says Yemen is using new tactics in dealing¹ with news media, restrictions² that could lead to the "worst climate for press freedom" since the country was unified³ in 1990.

The Committee to Protect Journalists says the Yemeni government has a "long-standing practice of violent repression⁴." However, over the past two years, the group says, Yemen has created a special court to prosecute⁵ "so-called press offenses⁶."

The government also is proposing licensing⁷ fees that would pose "prohibitive financial barriers" for anyone operating broadcast or online news services. CPJ said broadcast license⁸ fees could cost as much as $167,000, a sum that few individuals or groups in Yemen could raise.

Yemeni authorities did not immediately respond to the charges raised Wednesday by the Committee to Protect Journalists.

CPJ contends there are unwritten but firm rules on censorship in Yemen - so-called "red lines" that news media must not cross. These would include any reports on topics including official corruption⁹ and Yemen's inability to contain al-Qaida militants¹⁰.

In other developments Wednesday, authorities say suspected al-Qaida gunmen attacked a convoy¹¹ in a remote area of Yemen. One security officer was killed but the apparent targets of the attack - the governor of southern Shabwa province and the army chief of staff - survived the ambush¹² unharmed.

Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula is active in Shabwa, a mountainous province beyond the reach of the central government in the capital Sana'a. Al-Qaida militants have staged numerous attacks in Shabwa recently against police and military targets.