LATEST RELEASE – Order The Man of Middling Height by Syracuse University Press

Fadi Zaghmout

"harmful to the dignity of the state"

“harmful to the dignity of the state”

Are you kidding me?

A critic of Jordan’s royal family was sentenced to two years in jail on Tuesday for sending e-mails abroad that the court ruled to be carrying “false news” and harmful to the dignity of the state.

While I hate what this guy Ahmad Oweidi al-Abbadi has been spreading on his site and his hatered speech against Jordan and its regeme, but I can’t see how our government can sue a person for his speech?!

Maybe this is all about last months law of monitoring online sites. They wanted to get this guy!

But it is a slap to our achievements of freedom of speech!

Human Rights Watch critisized the government move!

Which I find more harmful to the dignity of this state!

Recent blog posts

Responses

  1. AniTriniTy Avatar
    AniTriniTy

    Dear Observer .. this time i don’t agree with you 🙂 .. even in the most democratic countries … if you criticize me or my business in harmful and non-objective way … i have the right to file a lawsuit against you with no consideration for your political position … the year 2006 in South africa a group of citizens and health care organizations file a lawsuit against the President Thabo Mbeki for Irresponsible statement about AIDS ( He said he’ not worry of HIV bcoz he take a shower after sex ) so these statement were considered as undermine of the awareness campaigns about the HIV … there is very soft line between freedom of speech and freedom of Chaos …Irresponsible statements must be considered as a criminal act when it’s Causing harm to any party …and that guy (abadi) he caused a lot of harm to some people and to the state and the economy of the state and to the reputation of the state … which i don’t agree on it personally .. and i believe i have the right to sue him my self as i live and work in this state .. again .. freedom of speech dosn’t mean to throw rocks on the people around you … Cheers 🙂

    Like

  2. The Observer Avatar
    The Observer

    Antitinity,If you are going to measure the harm. What the government does officially is more harmful than what this guy did.He isn’t that popular, and there are only few people who managed to read what he is spreading, and only stupid ones would take his words rather than official economy statistics.The government move has only managed to tarnish our reputation of being a democratic country that respects each others opinion.

    Like

  3. عباس العبد Avatar
    عباس العبد

    انتم كمان عندم الوضع ده مش فى مصر بس يعنى ؟

    Like

  4. bakkouz Avatar
    bakkouz

    I tend to agree with AniTriniTy, this isn’t a case of suppressing freedom of speech, this guy has crossed that border by miles, it would have been different if he had criticized the actions of the government in a rational objective manner, but what he did is just plain slander.

    Like

  5. Mohanned Avatar
    Mohanned

    So let me get this straight, he should be jailed for slandering the country? Was there a trial? was there any witnesses? Did they investigate his allegations?Eventhough I don’t agree with him, but this pure dictatorship, and let me tell you this: The “government” by doing so made him a hero.And for all of those that they said he harmed the state: What kind of harm is it? Did american love us less or syria hate us more? Did any of you loose his/her job because of what he said? He has an agenda and he has all the right to pursue it just like everyone else in the country.Why didn’t they sue adnan abu odeh? Or maybe oraib el rentawi, or lets say zaki bani rasheed?This is sad, the “government” or who ever was behind this is acting like…you know what forget it, it is a lost cause.. And they ask how terrorists are created!

    Like

  6. Alurdunialhurr Avatar
    Alurdunialhurr

    When Abadi was criticizing the Palestinians in Jordan which I disagree with him wholeheartedly,the government said nothing and did nothing about him till he started talking about the corruption of the Royal Court cronies ,they turned around and fabricated some bogus accusation to silence him. antitrinity,,,since when “our” government respect yours and mine freedom speech????

    Like

  7. The Observer Avatar
    The Observer

    Abbas, unfortunatly it seems so! I think it is worse in Egypt, but it seems that we are moving backward withi our current government!bakkouz, the sky is the limit, isnt it? there should be no borders on freedom of speech. Let him slander as much as he wants, who cares? His damage would never reach the damage caused by tarnishing Jordan reputation as a demorcratic country. Mohannad, I think that it is time for our government to mature. They should stop fearing the talk of others. Everytime someone points a shortage in this country, they go on rage like little kids on high school. They dont realize that while this has been part of our people’s mentality for ages, Jordanians have matured! It is time for our official to mature as well.alurdunialhurr, I would advice you to be careful yourself. Now with this, it wont be so far on them to follow you!

    Like

Do you have something to say?