World’s Press Organizations Protest Against Jailings in Jordan Over Muhammad Cartoons

The World Association of Newspapers and World Editors Forum have protested to the Jordanian government against the prosecution of two editors who published the cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad that have caused a storm of Muslim protest around the world.

“While appreciating that the cartoons have caused offence to many  Muslims in Jordan and elsewhere, we respectfully remind you that the decision  as to whether or not to publish such material is an editorial decision and not one with which the state ­ and in particular the criminal law ­ should interfere,” the Paris-based WAN and the WEF said in a letter to Jordanian Interior Minister Awni Yerfas.

“The cartoons may have been in poor taste, but they were satirical in nature and did not incite violence,” said the letter, which called for the charges to be dropped and for the journalists to be released from prison, where they are being held after requests for bail were denied.

Editors Jihad Momani of the weekly Shihan, and Hisham Khalidi of al-Mehwar, were arrested and charged with blasphemy after publishing the cartoons that were first published in Denmark. Shihan printed three of the cartoons alongside an editorial  questioning whether the angry reaction of Muslims was justified, while Al-Mehwar  reproduced the cartoons to accompany an article on the condemnation they had sparked.

To read the full letter to the Interior Minister, go to http://www.wan-press.org/article9164.html

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