(RSF/IFEX) – In a letter to Minister for the Interior Awad Khleifat, RSF expressed its concern over the recent questioning of Yasser Adu Hilala, a correspondent for the Qatari television channel Al-Jazeera in Amman, and Sawsan Abu Hamda, a journalist with the same channel. RSF Secretary-General Robert Ménard asked the minister to “ensure that this […]
(RSF/IFEX) – In a letter to Minister for the Interior Awad Khleifat, RSF expressed its concern over the recent questioning of Yasser Adu Hilala, a correspondent for the Qatari television channel Al-Jazeera in Amman, and Sawsan Abu Hamda, a journalist with the same channel. RSF Secretary-General Robert Ménard asked the minister to “ensure that this type of unjustified measure is not taken again.” “We do not understand the reasons for this questioning, especially since the Jordanian authorities have provided no explanation,” Ménard added.
According to information collected by RSF, Hilala was detained for questioning for twenty-four hours by security officers. He and his team were covering a demonstration in the town of Ma’an (south of the capital) during which a small group of people expressed their support for Osama bin Laden. That same day in Amman, Hamda was taken in for six hours and questioned. She had been covering a demonstration by well-known tribes in the capital when she was surrounded by security police, who took her by force to their offices. According to Al-Jazeera management, the journalist was “badly treated, insulted and humiliated.”
