Yemen Times

The Yemen Times is unified Yemen's first and most widely-read independent English-language newspaper. The paper is published twice-weekly (on Mondays and Thursdays) and has its own printing press, advertising associates and news service.

It was founded in 1991 by Professor Abdulaziz Al-Saqqaf, a leading economist and human-rights activist, who was also its editor and publisher until he died in a traffic accident in 1999. In the paper's mission statement, he wrote that: "We use the Yemen Times to make Yemen a good world citizen."

The Yemen Times has offices and correspondents all over the country. It supports press freedom, respect for human rights, political pluralism and democracy. It promotes non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and other forms of civil-society organizations. At the economic front, it supports liberalization and open interaction with other nations. The paper and its editor were awarded the NPC's International Award for Freedom of the Press for 1995.

It is worth noting that the first national English-language Yemeni newspapers were published in 1960s in Aden. These were Aden Chronicle by Mohammed Ali Luqmān and The Recorder by Muhmmad Bā-Sharāhīl. The publication of these and their sister Arabic-language newspapers Fatāt ul-Jazīrah and Al-’Ayyām (see website: http://www.al-ayyam.info/) ceased when the National Front for the Liberation of South Yemen (NLF) took power in the then People's Republic of South Yemen, (PRSY) (later known as the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen, PDRY) in 1967. The publication of Al-’Ayyām was resumed after the unification of the two sectors of Yemen in 1990.