Jordanian journalists arrested for exposing tax dodging

This video from Britain says about itself:

Censorship & torture – Prince Charles visits Jordan amid questions over human rights

9 February 2015

Prince Charles visits Kuwait today as part of his tour of the Middle East. On Saturday he visited Jordan, with the world rightly outraged that one of their pilots was burned to death by ISIS. Obama was angered by that, but seemed to forget the 2,500 people that the Bureau of Investigative Journalism report have been killed by drone strikes in countries we’re not actually at war with. Human Rights Watch, meanwhile, warn that Jordan is stepping up attacks and censorship on independent media, criminalising speech critical of the King, and claims torture enjoys near-total impunity. According to the recent unauthorised biography of Prince Charles, he doesn’t like peddling arms to Arab countries, so what is he up to in the region?

From daily The Morning Star in Britain:

Friday, January 19, 2018

Press Freedom: Jordanians demand release of journalists who exposed minister’s tax-dodging

PRESS freedom advocates are calling for the release of two Jordanian journalists who were arrested after they accused the country’s finance minister of tax evasion.

Shadi al-Zinati and Omar al-Mahrama, of the Jfranews website, were nabbed by police on Tuesday after Finance Minister Omar Malhas claimed the allegations against him were false.

They face charges under Jordan’s press and cybercrime laws, which contain sections that make it easy for authorities to arrest journalists.

The Middle East Eye reported that dozens of media workers rallied outside the Jordan Press Association (JPA) yesterday, holding a banner bearing a quote from King Abdullah promising that journalists would not be prosecuted for doing their jobs.

JPA freedoms committee chair Khaled Qudah said the body was working to free the pair.

He told the Alghad newspaper that “these arrests strike at the heart of freedom of expression in Jordan.”

MP Saddah Alhabashneh accused the government of trying to “muffle” dissent after recent decisions that impoverish ordinary Jordanians.