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Thursday, May 12, 2011

Freedom of expression, Jordanian-style

From Ammon News:
Chief of the Public Security Directorate (PSD) on Wednesday stood before Amman Public Prosecutor to submit complaints against three Jordanian electronic news websites for what he considered offensive reports about PSD and personal character assassination.

Lt. General Hussein Hazza' Majali voluntarily stood before the judge and explained the repercussions of publishing offensive reports against the country's security forces and the personal harm against him in what he considered an offense to his reputation and status.
Majali sounds like a real jerk.

Oops! He might go after me now.

Speaking of....
Jordanian security officials summoned the parent of a college student over what they considered are blogs that criticize government performance, "Dhabahtuna" a students' rights watchdog group said.

A statement issued by the group reported that the female student's blogs critiqued government performance "within the limits allowed by the law."

It added that the student and her family received threats to expel the student from the university if she does not stop writing blogs about the government.

The blogger resorted to shutting down her blog after pressure from her family out of fear that their daughter would be punished for her opinions.

A similar incident also took place last month in which Dabahtuna said that security forces threatened a mother of arresting her daughter if the latter doesn't curb her activism on university campus.