25 April 2012 Last updated at 07:30 ET <\/p>\n
The Jordanian authorities are violating people's right to free speech and undermining the credibility of reform efforts, a human rights group has said. <\/p>\n
Human Rights Watch said a journalist and the publisher of the Gerasa News website had been charged with \"subverting the system of government\". <\/p>\n
The charges related to an article about King Abdullah's alleged intervention in a corruption investigation, it added. <\/p>\n
HRW said the case was the fifth such incident in Arab kingdom this year. <\/p>\n
Sahar al-Muhtasab and her brother Jamal al-Muhtasab, who both worked for Gerasa News, had been charged on 23 April, a statement said. <\/p>\n
They had both worked on an article that quoted a member of parliament as saying King Abdullah had issued instructions to members of a parliamentary committee not to refer a former minister to court on corruption charges. <\/p>\n
Ms Muhtasab told HRW that a military prosecutor at the State Security Court had insisted King Abdullah was at the forefront of the fight against corruption, and that it was forbidden to imply otherwise. <\/p>\n
Jordan cannot claim to be making democratic reforms while prosecutors hunt down journalists doing their job <\/p>\n
The prosecutor charged them both with \"subverting the system of government in the kingdom\", a crime that article 149 of Jordan's penal code punishes with hard labour. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Read the rest here: 25 April 2012 Last updated at 07:30 ET The Jordanian authorities are violating people's right to free speech and undermining the credibility of reform efforts, a human rights group has said. Human Rights Watch said a journalist and the publisher of the Gerasa News website had been charged with \"subverting the system of government\". The charges related to an article about King Abdullah's alleged intervention in a corruption investigation, it added. Continue reading
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