Abdulaziz: Making Yemen a Good World Citizen by Raidan Alsaqqaf

"Mr. President, let me say that as editor of the Yemen Times, I cannot turn it into a carbon copy of the official newspapers. However, if issuing the Yemen Times will cost me my life, as the threats indicate, I do not want to continue with it. This matter is in your hands!" Abdulaziz Al-Saqqaf, 2 January 1999. Yemen in the 1990s is the story of how two authoritarian regimes merged to make a democracy! This was new territory for all and a pioneering experiment in a region known to constrain human rights. Dr Abdulaziz Al-Saqqaf saw that democracy could indeed take root in Yemen, and established Yemen Times newspaper to play a significant role to make this experiment a successful one. This memoir recounts the story of Dr Abdulaziz Al-Saqqaf, an economics professor turned journalist, and his relentless pursuit of human rights and freedom of expression despite the gravest challenges. Abdulaziz dubbed the mission of Yemen Times to make Yemen a good world citizen, a bridge between Yemen and t