Jordanian airport officials on Sunday seized 29 videotapes from a sports correspondent working for the Qatar-based Al-Jazeera satellite TV channel as he prepared to fly to Doha, the journalist told AFP.
Lotfi Zohbi said he was stopped at the Queen Alia Airport by airport officials who searched him and seized 29 videocassettes he had taped during last week's coverage of the 12th Arab volleyball championships in the capital of Amman.
Zohbi said they wanted to make sure that the tapes were recorded before Jordan's decision last Wednesday to revoke Al-Jazeera's license, shut down its Amman offices and ban correspondents from working in the kingdom. Zohbi, a Jordanian national, said that as a result of the search at the airport he missed his flight to Doha on Sunday but he said that he would be taking another flight on Monday.
He was told that he could recover the confiscated videocassettes after the Jordanian authorities check them to make sure none were taped after the ban shutting down Al-Jazeera. It is noteworthy to mention that Zohbi said he had stopped taping the volleyball championships after the ban. (Albawaba.com)
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