Human Rights Watch on Wednesday urged Jordan to revise its anti-terrorism law and to halt its pursuit of journalists, accusing the kingdom of restricting freedom of expression, AFP reported.
“Jordanian authorities are curtailing media freedom by detaining and bringing charges against journalists under broad and vague provisions of the country's terrorism law,” a statement said.
The comments come after Ghazi al-Marayat, a journalist at government-controlled al-Rai newspaper, was held for four days for allegedly violating a gag order in a report on a foiled terror plot. Al-Rai had not been informed of the gag order at the time of publishing.
“Jordan's concerns over its security situation shouldn't translate into branding journalists and writers as security threats merely for doing their jobs or expressing themselves peacefully,” HRW deputy director Joes Stork told AFP.
“Jordan should stop prosecuting journalists and revise its terrorism law to remove vague language used to limit peaceful speech.”
The watchdog accused Jordan of violating Article 42 of its press and publications law which prohibits pretrial detention of media workers for “expressing opinion by word, writing or other means of expression,” AFP reported.
