Fahd Rimawi

I've just been informed - hopefully reliably! - that the Jordanian State Security Court has decided to release the veteran Arab nationalist journalist Fahd Rimawi and allow his weekly newspaper al Majd to resume publication.  Rimawi was recently arrested and held for 15 days pending investigation. 

His crime?  Violating one of the absolutely ridiculous provisions of Jordan's draconian press law -  writing and publishing an article critical of Saudi Arabia violated a law against "harming relations with another state".  People who hold Jordan up as a model of Arab democracy really need to look a bit more closely... I like Jordan as well as the next person (more, I suspect), and I have the utmost admiration for its Queen.  But just go have a look at that press law, or any of the other "temporary" laws issued while Parliament was in recess, before and after 9/11.   

At any rate, I do hope that my correspondent is correct and the charges against Rimawi have been dropped.  Rimawi is a veteran muckraker, a political hardliner, and a general pain in the butt for the state, who has been arrested many times for pushing the 'red lines.'  His paper al Majd has been a voice for opposition forces in the kingdom for years; it has a very small circulation with the mass public, but is widely read by the political and civil society elite.  Jordan really should be able to tolerate something like that, and Rimawi really shouldn't have to risk many years in prison to publish his paper.   

UPDATE:  aha!  Reporters Without Borders is on the story, and it is true - Rimawi has been released.  Great!

ANOTHER UPDATE:  more here from the Jordan Times, including a strong editorial:  "If the authorities are back to arresting journalists, so much for the pledges of greater press freedoms. The arrest of Al Majd editor-in-chief Fahd Rimawi on Monday (he was released late yesterday), for publishing an article critical of Jordan's friendly neighbour Saudi Arabia, speaks contrary to these repeated promises, particularly in light of the immense attention being given to political development and the inherent prerequisite for freedom of expression."