Yemeni security forces opened fire on a sit-down protest outside the offices of the banned al-Ayyam newspaper in Aden yesterday,according to Reporters Without Borders.

The Paris-based press freedom organisation accused President Salih's government of "taking advantage of support from foreign powers in the fight against terrorism on its soil to deliberately violate people’s rights".

Al-Sahwa website says a soldier was killed in the "confrontations", though al-Ayyam's editor, Hisham Bashraheel, is quoted by Reporters Without Borders as saying: "The police even aimed at one of their own number to make it look like the demonstrators were armed, when in fact everyone came to protest peacefully."

The truth of the matter is unclear, though it would not be surprising if the authorities had sought a confrontation. Pictures from Aden Gulf Network News show men sitting around peacefully on carpets, barefooted and chewing qat – scarcely the way to prepare for a riot, I would have thought.

Al-Ayyam, which is Aden's oldest newspaper, was one of six papers banned last May, allegedly for supporting "separatism" in the south of Yemen.

• A curious footnote: Aden Gulf Network News clearly has separatist sympathies and its report in Arabic refers to the Yemeni security forces as the forces of "occupation" (ihtilal). Google's online translation into English renders the word "ihtilal" as "Israeli". An easy mistake to make, perhaps.

Posted by Brian Whitaker, 4 January 2010.