(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” […]
(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” in Jordan by order of the PPD.
On 12 May 1998, Agence France Presse quoted a PPD representative as saying
that the decision to ban “Al-Quds al-Arabi” came in response to the
newspaper’s “published reports and analysis which violate the most basic
rules of professionalism and objectivity.”
“Al-Quds al-Arabi” has been the target of repeated government harassment in
Jordan over the past year. Dozens of issues of the newspaper have been
confiscated by authorities in response to what authorities have deemed as
its unfavorable coverage of political affairs in Jordan. In March 1998,
Bassam Badareen, the paper’s Amman correspondent, was formally charged with
“distorting Jordan’s image abroad”, harming state relations with a friendly
country, and offending the state charges criminalized under the penal code.
The case against Badareen stemmed from a series of articles he wrote for
“Al-Quds al-Arabi” in late 1997, dealing with such topics as tensions
between the government and the Islamist opposition following its boycott of
last November’s parliamentary elections, and
criticism of the Arab-Israeli peace process. Badareen faces up to three
years in prison if convicted of the charges (see IFEX alert of 20 March
1998).
