AMMAN — Jordan’s Information Minister Taher Adwan said on
Tuesday he has resigned because of laws he deemed “restrictive for freedom
of expression.”

Jordan’s Information Minister Taher Adwan

“I submitted my resignation today to Prime Minister
Maaruf Bakhit in protest at a government decision” to debate new press and
publication laws in parliament that he opposed, Adwan said.

“In addition, MPs will debate proposed anti-corruption
and penal laws. I consider these laws restrictive for freedom of
expression.”

King Abdullah II on Monday ordered parliament to convene in
an extraordinary session from Wednesday to discuss a series of temporary laws.

Describing the proposed legislation as a “blow to the
reform drive” and “martial laws,” Adwan, who joined the
government in February, condemned “the repeated attacks on journalists who
are doing their professional duties.”

“Such attacks completely contradict political reform
efforts, which cannot be achieved without a democratic climate of press
freedom,” Adwan said in a statement.

Adwan has condemned an attack on AFP in which 10 men broke
into its Amman offices on Wednesday and destroyed furniture and equipment,
after the news agency was among several foreign media to report that part of
the king’s motorcade had been stoned during a visit to a southern city.

The reports were vigorously denied by the palace, government
officials and MPs from the city.

“Violence against journalists and their offices cannot
be justified, under the pretext of loyalty and nationalism,” said Adwan, a
veteran journalist who was the editor of Al-Arab Al-Yawm independent daily.

“There is leniency towards attacks on the media that
are being exploited to create chaos in the country, which could lead it to the
same swamps in which some regional regimes have drowned.”