A training centre for journalists has been set up in Yemen's capital, Sana'a, which pledges to offer free courses. It is being funded by a London charity under the wing of Saudi Arabian businessman Sheikh Mohamed Bin Issa Al Jaber.
Established ahead of Yemen elections in 2014, the central aim of the MBI Al Jaber Media Institute is to promote free and non-partisan reporting through encouraging high journalistic standards.
The centre is supported by the Yemeni journalist and Nobel peace prize laureate, Tawakkol Karman. At a London launch party for the centre (on 4 December), she greeted the press freedom initiative.
Karman, who leads the group "women journalists without chains," said she believes the centre will "play an important role in the nurturing, training and preparing of real journalists for the real world."
It is certainly going to be a tough ask. In September this year, I reported on a Human Rights Watch report that referred to journalism in Yemen as "a life-threatening career."
But change does appear possible. Last month I also carried a report on freelance journalist Iona Craig, who has worked in Yemen since October 2010, and describes it as "the most misunderstood and under-reported country in the Middle East".
Source: MBI Al Jaber Foundation
