At the time of writing, Jordanian media outlets, such as Jordan TV, Al Mamlaka, Al Rai newspaper, and the privately owned Al Ghad newspaper, have not shared Prince Hamza’s video or reported its content.
And the constraints were deepened even further on Tuesday 6 April, when the Jordanian public prosecutor banned reporting on the alleged coup both in the media and on social media. Gag orders are nothing new in Jordan – similar orders were announced on the eve of the government’s order to close the Teachers’ Syndicate in July last year, as well as on the inquiry into the Salt hospital crisis last month, when at least seven COVID-19 patients died after the hospital’s oxygen supply failed.
Freedom under attack
This is despite the fact that in 2018 the Jordanian government invested millions of dollars into developing the public service 24/7 news TV station, Al Mamlaka (The Kingdom), which has operated since then with a yearly budget of nearly $40m. The station promised to be inclusive of all Jordanian voices. The station’s CEO, Dana Suyyagh, claimed in 2018 that although the channel was “state funded”, it was “administratively independent”.
The US-based NGO Freedom House, which conducts research into democracy and human rights throughout the world, downgraded Jordan from its status of ‘partly free’ last year to ‘not free’ this year. It said the downgrading was due to Jordan’s harsh new restrictions on freedom of assembly, a crackdown on the teachers’ union following strikes and protests, and a lack of adequate preparations that harmed the quality of parliamentary elections during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The country has been increasing restrictions on freedom of the press since 2012 and has witnessed several waves of protest since 2011 calling for more freedom, as well as economic and political reforms.
In 2012, parliament passed an amendment to the 1988 Press and Publication Law. It required all news websites that published regional, national or international news to register with the government and appoint an editor-in-chief who was a member of the Jordan Journalists’ Syndicate.
At the time, the syndicate did not allow journalists working for online media to become members but this has since changed. A total of 120 websites were unable to proceed with the registration or refused to register with the government and therefore were blocked in early 2013 by the country’s internet service providers.
In August last year, Human Rights Watch criticised the authorities for using gag orders, harassment and arrests to limit media coverage of the teachers’ protests and said that police had beaten two journalists who covered the demonstrations.
Michael Page, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch, said: “Jordan’s cynical exploitation of arbitrary measures such as gag orders and arrests to silence journalists is only the latest in a series of restrictions on press freedoms in the country. Jordan will not solve its myriad of economic and political problems by cracking down on journalists and limiting free speech.”
This new crisis shows once again the dire lack of public access to information in the kingdom, and how poorly local media is treated by the state. The result is the deterioration of citizens’ right to be informed, to access vital information and to be able to express their opinions freely. And even when officials are able to leak important news, the past week has shown that they look abroad to do so.
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abeer alnajjar | Radio Free (2021-04-09T12:10:17+00:00) What's wrong with Jordanian media?. Retrieved from https://www.radiofree.org/2021/04/09/whats-wrong-with-jordanian-media/
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