Jordan: News agency stormed after reporting on attack on King Abdallah

21 Jun 11 | Index Index, Middle East and North Africa, minipost

On Saturday the Agence France-Presse bureau in Amman was attacked. The office was reportedly stormed by a dozen men armed with clubs who smashed furniture and telephones and threw files to the ground. Two days before the attack, editor in chief Randa Habib was threatened by an anonymous caller after the agency reported that stones and bottles had been thrown at King Abdallah’s motorcade during a visit to a settlement 200km north of the capital. Jordan’s Minister of State for Communications and Media Affairs, Taher Adwan, said that reports of violence by some media agencies were groundless.

King Abdullah orders release of Jordanian journalist

02 Jun 11 | Index Index, Middle East and North Africa, minipost

Jordanian journalist, Alaa Fazza, was released from prison Wednesday, on the orders of King Abdullah II yesterday (1 June), the country’s independence day. Fazza was been detained 14 days by a military court on charges that he had accused the government of corruption without submitting evidence to the Attorney General. In a letter to Prime Minister Marouf Bakhit, King Abdullah cautioned about the “danger of the behavior of some who take the denunciation of corruption as an excuse for the character assassination of individuals and institutions.”