Editor-in-chief of a weekly arrested

In a letter sent to the new Minister of the Interior, Koftan Majali, Reporters Sans Frontières (Reporters Without Borders - RSF) protests the arrest of Fahd Rimaoui, editor-in-chief of Al-Majd, a left-leaning nationalist weekly. "This arrest is yet another example of the withdrawal of democratic freedoms in Jordan," says Robert Ménard, RSF's secretary-general. "We hope that the new government will commit itself to freedom of the press." According to information collected by RSF, the editor-in-chief of the left-leaning nationalist weekly, Al-Majd, was arrested on January 13th for having "written and published spurious information likely to demean the prestige and reputation of the state as well as the dignity of its people". The paper's management noted that this arrest occurred after Al-Majd had published an article on 7 January in which he criticized the performance of the government of Prime Minister Ali Abu Ragheb. The paper's management also stressed that the paper had published an article in which Fahd Rimaoui announced that a new government would soon be formed. The public prosecutor ordered Fahd Rimaoui to be arrested for two weeks. He is being held in Juweideh jail.