Following Yemen's Ansar Allah movement's retaliatory attack on the UAE, Jan.17, 2022, The Washington Post published on the same day an article by Siobhán O'Grady titled "Who are the Houthis and why did they attack UAE?", stating that the movement "formally calls itself Ansar Allah," but continued to name them "Houthis," starting from the title till the very end of the article. 

The Washington Post's Discussion and Submission Guidelines state that content submitted to the paper by others should not be based on "inappropriate content" like "derogatory name-calling" and shouldn’t "misrepresent identity or affiliation". But it did not state that its reporters and staff should put that into consideration when covering news and writing reports.

The Washington Post is one of several Western news outlets and agencies, such as the New York Times, AP, Reuters, AFP, etc... that claim to be editorially and financially independent from their governments that back and sell weapons to the Saudi-led coalition, but when it comes to naming one of the Yemeni parties, Ansar Allah, these media outlets use the informal and unofficial name, the "Houthis".

Al-Mayadeen English sent on Feb.13 an interview request via email to Siobhán O'Grady, Washington Post's Cairo Bureau Chief, inquiring why doesn't the paper use the formal name of Ansar Allah and instead opts to use the informal "Houthis" although the United Nations calls "Houthis" by their formal name Ansar Allah.

O'Grady replied on Feb. 14 at 7:46 PM via email, thanking us for reaching out and saying, "I don’t have anything to add beyond what’s in our published stories".

'Violation of our basic rights'

It's not clear why The Washington Post and other Western English news outlets prefer to call Ansar Allah as Houthis, a designation seen by Ansar Allah not only "derogatory," but also a "demonization" and a pretext to "target 80% of Yemenis" living under the role of The National Salvation Government in Sanaa.

According to the values of media outlets such as AP, their coverage maintains a policy that "abhors inaccuracies, carelessness, bias or distortions". 

Journalism Code of Ethics also warns reporters from identifying others by their religion. This also applies to Yemen Press and the Publication Law of 1990, but reporters working with these outlets don't abide by the rules due to the outlets' editorial policy. Thus, reporters and journalists have no other option but to use Houthis instead of Ansar Allah. 

Nasruddin Amer, Deputy Minister of Information, said “the first entity to label Ansar Allah as Houthis was the regime of the former President Ali Abdullah Saleh”. He accused The Washington Post of adopting this denomination from their rivals.

Amer who is also Deputy of Ansar Allah Media Authority told Al-Mayadeen English: “Unfortunately, it [The Washington Post] got its information about Ansar Allah from our rivals and those who bore us enmity”. He stressed that the designation of Ansar Allah as Houthis “violates our most basic rights”.

A pretext for targeting civilians 

designating Ansar Allah as "Houthis", according to Amer, “is no longer used in referring to Ansar Allah’s members, but all the [Yemeni] people who live under the [National] Salvation Government in Sana’a and all those who support it.

Related News

An opportunity to get acquainted

Yemen's largest hospital resumes kidney transplant operations after years of suspension

Asked about how the labeling of Ansar Allah as ‘Houthis’ is going to affect their reputation domestically and internationally, Amer stressed that there is neither a direct effect on them nor is it a distortion for the Yemeni people. But those who label  Ansar Allah [as Houthis] are considered by the Yemeni people as “real enemies, and could not be neutralized”. 

Amer also said that the US-backed Saudi-led coalition has been “targeting everyone by killing, perpetrating massacres, imposing illegal siege. However, it is displayed in front of the World that those who are targeted are the Houthis.”

“And according to the accusations attributed to what they call Houthis, these crimes become acceptable; although, they are in fact targeting over 80% of the Yemeni population who live in areas under Sanaa Government control”, Amer told Al-Mayadeen English.

Journalism code of ethics' principle stipulating the "limitation of harm" states that journalists and news outlets should refrain from publishing names that cause harm, so labeling Ansar Allah as "Houthis", a name that the Saudi and UAE media machines use to attribute to it alleged "violations of human rights", has become a scarecrow to harm them and tarnish their reputation so that no person can join their ranks; and if they do, he might be a "legitimate" target for the western-backed Saudi-led airstrikes.

"A Catastrophic Failure"

Abayomi Azikiwe, an American independent editor based in Michigan, said “the United States corporate media has remained hostile to the resistance forces fighting the Pentagon and Saudi-backed military units operating in Yemen.”

“These news agencies are seeking to denigrate the legitimacy of the resistance that aims to end the foreign occupation and bombing of Yemen”. 

“Oftentimes the Ansar Allah is mischaracterized as a surrogate of the Islamic Republic of Iran”, Azikiwe told Al-Mayadeen English. “In doing so, they are attempting to deny the right of the movement that unites Yemen against foreign interference and destabilization”.

When asked whether these media and their correspondents are resorting to demonizing Ansar Allah by calling them Houthis, Azikiwe replied, “Yes, despite Joe Biden’s claims that ensured that under his administration, the support for the Saudi-led war would cease. He also suggested that the US would engage in diplomacy to resolve the conflict inside the country”.

The foreign policy of Biden, according to Azikiwe, has not altered from the policies of the former US administrations which maintained the war against the Yemeni people despite the humanitarian crisis that was inflicted upon the country.

It’s not clear yet if the Western media outlets are motivated religiously to demonize Ansar Allah by naming them Houthis, but for Azikiwe, “their motivations are purely designed to disrupt any efforts to build unity and peace in West Asia”.

The foreign policy of the US has been a catastrophic failure only resulting in death, hunger, and destruction”, Azikiwe told Al-Mayadeen English.

"No neutrality"

Dr. Ali Al-Ammar, professor of journalism at Sanaa University said "there are absolutely no innocent media, whether it is domestic, regional or international because each media has a specific political orientation, and any military or political event is dealt with according to the political trend ".

"The Washington Post aims to achieve certain political goals", Al-Ammar told Al-Mayadeen English. "There is no neutrality. Every newspaper has a specific direction and a specific editorial policy that it implements".

“Journalism Code of Ethics has to do with the practice of the profession, but no one abides by the rules, only a few journalists follow the main tenets,” said Al-Ammar. “But when implementing policies is related to editorial policy, the newspaper implements what it wants,  independently of the Code of Ethics, then,  objectivity and impartiality become a major media lie”.

Al-Ammar, a professor of journalism, pointed out that The Washington Post, AP, Reuters, AFP, etc. “are independent of their governments, but not in content,” because originally these countries do not have real national newspapers and only corporate in supporting private newspapers.

“They also do not have a press law, only a Code of ethics, and an editorial policy determined by each media outlet.”

Finally, Al-Ammar told Al-Mayadeen English, “What is happening in the universe is a conflict of interests, and this is what is happening in the media field”.