Hi I'm David's friend Jane from Armies of Liberation. I am a columnist published in the many Middle Eastern newspapers. For the last year, I have been extensively researching and writing about Yemen. One very big concern for me is the increasingly brutal crackdown on Yemeni journalists.

The Yemeni government trashes me by name in the governmental newspapers, trashes my blog by name in the governmental newspapers.

I was recently on al-Jazeera (see "Jane Novak Slams President Saleh's Regime on al-Jazeera") and I received a lot of lovely email from regular Yemeni citizens like these:

1) At first i would like to send you my best regards. i would like to take this opportunity to tell you about all the love and appreciation we have for your support and fight against democracy and freedom, i would like to thank you for all your brave humanitarian in supporting our nation especially your opinion and announcements you made in Al-Jazeera whom we all watched , we are really proud of you and with anyone following your steps.

2) from aden thank yo novak we looks when yo sbeking from agazira tv yo argood wamn we hop vist and se yo our contry is bad

3) I take this opportunity to express our thanks and appreciations for the remarkable efforts to explain to the West to what extent we -the Yemenis- are suffering.

4) I can only commend you on your excellent work on Al-Jazeera yesterday. You proved a true defender of the vulnerable and weak in this country.

So I'm going to post here now and then when there's a big story, a crazy thing, or someone is in danger. I made a petition in March for a Yemeni journalist. David, who believes very strongly in the right of all people to free speech, was a big supporter and really helped me a lot. The journalist, Abdulkarim al-Khaiwani, was released and now he is defending me from the governmental attacks. The title of his article is "Stop Attacking the American Journalist."

But the Yemeni people know its more than just me on their side, that its other bloggers and a lot of regular citizens who are concerned with their very desperate plight. And the more publicity we can get on the truth, the more we can break down the wall of censorship and propaganda that boxes them in and away from the global community.

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Posted by: David Anderson at November 22, 2005 12:15 PM

Posted by: Jane at November 22, 2005 09:53 PM