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| Israel-Palestine-Jordan |
| Jordan to scrap jail for press |
| 2006-06-01 |
| Jordan plans to scrap prison sentences for offences involving the press, the government said on Wednesday, a day after two journalists were handed jail terms. "The government is committed to legally abolishing prison sentences for journalists in press and publications-related offences," government spokesperson Nasser Jawdeh told AFP. "This policy has been clearly expressed by the king (Abdullah II) on a number of occasions," he said. "The government will do so through a clear clause to this effect in the new press and publication law that it will present to the parliament," said the spokesman. A Jordanian court on Tuesday sentenced to prison two newspaper editors for "attacking religious sentiment" by reprinting cartoons deemed offensive to Prophet Muhammad, their lawyer said. Jihad Momani, former editor of the weekly Shihane tabloid, and Hisham al-Khalidi, editor-in-chief of the tabloid Al-Mehwar, "were each sentenced to two months in prison", attorney Mohammed Kteishat told AFP. The defendants have been on bail since their arrest in February for printing the drawings, first published in September by Danish daily Jyllands-Posten. Momeni and Khalidi both pleaded not guilty. The government spokesperson said "the case of the two editors in question is not a new one, it has been in the legal system for months now and the sentence passed yesterday (on Tuesday) is being appealed". The two journalists are currently free on bail until their appeal is heard, he said. Early in February, King Abdullah said that insulting the Prophet was "an unjustifiable crime ... that could not be justified on the pretext of freedom of expression". |
| Posted by:ryuge |
| #4 I'll be more impressed with the king when he requires primary and secondary textbooks be updated to treat neighboring Israel as a proper country filled with real people instead of land temporarily occupied by murderous, evil Jooooos. Recall, the EU-financed textbooks now used by the Palestinians are less hateful than the ones they'd inherited from their days as a Jordanian protectorate. www.MEMRI.org has an analysis somewhere on the site, as I recall. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2006-06-01 12:17 |
| #3 "We will substitute severe beatings for jail terms" |
| Posted by: Frank G 2006-06-01 12:01 |
| #2 Im'm impressed by King Abdullah. But then it isn't like the islmaists can do more than is already being done to try to kill him. |
| Posted by: ed 2006-06-01 10:25 |
| #1 Well sure King, but what if he wasn't a 'prophet'? What if her were a mass-murdering, raping, pedophilic, war-mongering, alcoholic thief? I'm just sayin'..... |
| Posted by: mcsegeek1 2006-06-01 10:12 |