AMMAN: A senior Jordanian editor says a journalist at his state-run Al-Rai newspaper was ordered held for 15 days after he allegedly broke a ban on writing about a foiled terror plot.

Deputy editor-in-chief Khalil Shobaki said Friday his paper and the Jordanian journalists' association demanded the immediate release of Ghazi Mrayat and received government assurances he would be freed soon.

At issue is a follow-up story Mrayat wrote about the arrest of an Iraqi suspect who allegedly was sent by an Iranian group to carry out bombings in Jordan. The journalist was detained Wednesday, two days after a state security court imposed the news blackout.

Shobaki says the newspaper did not receive the gag order in writing.

In New York, the Committee to Protect Journalists also called for Mrayat's release.