Jordan

(WiPC/IFEX) – The WiPC is disturbed by the arrest of Senan Shaqdeh, a prominent journalist. Shaqdeh was arrested on 25 July 1999 and has now been held without charge or trial for more than two weeks. **Updates IFEX alert of 26 July 1999** According to several reports the WiPC has received, Shaqdeh was arrested in […]

(RSF/IFEX) – In a 26 July 1999 letter to King Abdallah II of Jordan, RSF protested the 25 July arrest of Senan Shadeq, a journalist with the evening newspaper “Al-Masaya” and a corresponding editor for the Emirates daily “Al-Ittihad”. RSF stated that “detention before a trial is out of proportion for a press offence” and […]

(RSF/IFEX) – In a 30 June 1999 letter sent to King Abdallah II of Jordan, RSF protested against the 29 June arrest of the editor-in-chief of the daily “Al-Arab Al-Yawm”, Shaker Al-Jawhari, and called for the “journalist’s release, in order to guarantee freedom of the press.” Shaker Al-Jawhari was summoned to the Intelligence Department on […]

(RSF/IFEX) – RSF is welcoming the announcement by Jordan’s government that the press law enacted last September is to be reviewed. **Updates IFEX alerts of 1 December, 3 September, 20 August, 10 August, 4 August, 13 July and 7 July 1998** RSF suggests that the new press law is not satisfactory in terms of freedom […]

(RSF/IFEX) – The following is a 1 December 1998 RSF press release on the occasion of the joint publishing of a study on Jordan’s restrictive new press law: **Updates IFEX alerts of 3 September, 20 August, 10 August, 4 August, 13 July and 7 July 1998** Tuesday, 1 December For immediate release Press Release Jordan […]

(RSF/IFEX) – RSF is protesting the closure of the Amman office of the Qatar satellite TV station Al Jazira. According to RSF’s sources, on 4 November 1998, the Jordanian government revoked the press credentials of Al Jazira, a Qatar-based satellite TV station, and those of its five Jordanian employees at the Amman office, who were […]

(RSF/IFEX) – The new press law in Jordan was ratified by royal decree on 2 September 1998. This new press law poses a grave threat to press freedom. Some articles of the law are real infringements of the rights of journalists to do their work. The risk lies in the imprecise terms of the provisions […]

(RSF/IFEX) – On 10 August in the capital of Amman, Hussein Emoush, editor-in-chief of the satirical weekly “Abed Rabbo”, was arrested in the middle of the night by a group of more than ten police officers. Claiming that they had a warrant for his arrest, they took him to the police station. A few days […]

(CPJ/IFEX) – In the late evening of 8 August 1998, Nahed Hattar, editor-in-chief of the weekly “Al-Mithaq”, was violently assaulted by four unidentified men wielding clubs as he exited his car with his wife and child in front of his home in Jabal Hussein. The assailants beat him until he lost consciousness. Hattar was taken […]

(RSF/IFEX) – According to information made available by RSF on 10 August 1998, on 9 August, Parliament ratified a new press law which poses a grave threat to press freedom. Some articles of this law are real infringements of the rights of journalists to do their work. Article 42 of the bill sent by the […]

(CPJ/IFEX) – A draft press law was approved last week by the National Guidance Committee (NGC) of the Jordanian Parliament. However, despite the NGC’s amendment of several highly restrictive provisions of the original bill submitted by the cabinet last month, the draft law constitutes a grave threat to press freedom in Jordan. **For background, see […]

(HRW/IFEX) – In a 9 July 1998 letter to Jordanian Minister of Higher Education, Dr. Mohammad Hamdan, made public on 13 July, the Human Rights Watch Academic Freedom Committee criticizes the draft press and publications law currently being considered by the Jordanian parliament. The letter, signed on behalf of the committee by Jonathan F. Fanton, […]

(ARTICLE 19/IFEX) – ARTICLE 19 has sent a Memorandum to King Hussein of Jordan about the draft 1998 Press and Publications Law, together with an appeal to the Jordanian Government and Parliament not to pass it into law. ARTICLE 19 considers that the proposed legislation would constitute an unacceptable threat both to media freedom and […]

(CPJ/IFEX) – On 2 June 1998, the Amman Court of First Instance sentenced Nidal Mansour, editor-in-chief of the weekly “Al-Hadath”, to six months in prison. Mansour was charged under Jordan’s penal code with harming the country’s relations with a friendly state in connection with a 1994 article published in the weekly “Al-Bilad”, which Mansour headed […]

(CPJ/IFEX) – According to CPJ, on 12 May 1998, Jordan’s Press and Publications Department (PPD) ordered an indefinite ban on the distribution in Jordan of the London-based daily “Al-Quds al-Arabi.” In a letter faxed today to editor-in-chief Abdel Bari Atwan, the Jordan Distribution Agency informed the newspaper that it could no longer distribute “Al-Quds al-Arabi” […]

(Freedom House/IFEX) – According to Freedom House, it was reported on 21 April 1998 that Yousef Gheishan, the satirical writer at the weekly “Abed Rabboh”, was released on 18 April 1998, after six days of detention. Gheishan was arrested at his home on 11 April 1998 by security agents, who searched the house and confiscated […]