State security court censors weekly paper

Reporters Without Borders today deplored a ban on the latest issue of the independent Jordanian weekly Al-Wehda by state security court prosecutor Mahmood Obeidat and called for the paper to be immediately allowed to appear freely. "This censorship has been imposed despite the recent abolition of article 150 of the criminal code which curbed press freedom," said Reporters Without Border secretary-general Robert Ménard. "The abolition was a good sign, but the authorities seem to be taking one step forward and three steps back. "Prior censorship is theoretically no longer done in Jordan, but the authorities are still using the old methods to continue muzzling the press and forcing journalists to censor themselves. The content of some publications is closely inspected at the printers and officials call editors to ask for stories to be dropped or else simply forbid the printing of an entire issue, as in this case," he said. Non-official sources said the paper's 24 September issue was banned because it contained an article about torture carried out in Jordan in 1993. Previous issues have been partly censored, but this time the whole issue seems to have been considered too subversive to be printed. Al-Wehda often gives space to the left-wing opposition's views.