AMMAN — The head of the National Steering, Media, and
Culture Committee,
MP Yasar Al-Khasawneh, was quoted in a local media outlet as
saying that the committee had drawn up a plan of action that has among its
priorities coming up with amendments to the laws on press and publications,
electronic crimes, and the right to obtain information, as well as amendments
to the Penal Code punishments that affect freedom of the press.
اضافة اعلان
The committee will hold a meeting with journalists, media
professionals, and the
Jordan Press Association to discuss the amendments that
the committee will propose to preserve freedom of the press and journalists’
right to obtain information, said Khasawneh, pointing out the importance of
having judges specialized in matters related to press and publications with complete
autonomy and authority to make rulings.
Khasawneh also stressed that it is not acceptable to deal
with social media the way one deals with mainstream media and that Jordan's
regression in press freedoms indicators is “annoying”.
He said that the committee wishes to reach some kind of
partnership with press and media workers who have the right to obtain
information that should not be withheld from them.
He also said that in countries that have respect for the
Fourth Estate, journalists enjoy immunity just like MPs, stressing that “journalists
should not walk in a minefield during their work and impose self-censorship on
the material they want to publish.”
Political analyst
Oraib Rantawi said that media and
journalists’ freedoms are integral part of public freedoms and that both are in
a difficult and critical situation, with official media enjoying fewer freedoms
than social media and websites, which also limits the influence of official
media on citizens.
“This explains why the narrative presented by the Jordanian government
does not reach Jordanians, why the government has no one to defend its version
of the narrative, and this is what His Majesty
King Abdullah complained about,”
said Rantawi.
He stressed that the situation of newspapers is
“catastrophic at all levels” and that curtailing freedom of the press leaves
people with the option of obtaining information from social media, “with which the
citizen is fed up”, and thus the Jordanian government loses one of its most
important weapons, besides not being able to reflect a clear image of its
undertakings.
Rantawi said that if the government does not reach the
conviction that the media need legislation, freedom, and funding, and if it does
not care to advance freedoms and respect the independence of the media and
societal pluralism, there will be serious problems, particularly if the absence
of political will and the “appalling state of slackness” in the country “made
it falter”.
“For 20 years, we have been asking the same questions and giving
the same answers, and yet have not found a way to translate them into anything
meaningful,” he said.
He added that the image of Jordan, which was respected for
many years, was shaken in 2021, and “we need to exert great efforts so that the
world sees us differently.” Jordan, he said, has an interest in presenting its
image beautifully and positively.
“If this state of political obstruction, anger, and betting
on the patience of Jordanians continues, we have to worry about an explosion
situation, the best example of which is the Arab Spring,” he said.
Former
MP Jamil Al-Nimri said: “The decline in freedoms
comes from a conflict in the work agendas of different authorities in the
country, so that it appears that there is a certain trend. For example, the
Royal Committee has done something, the security services dealt with protests
in certain way, and this gives those who observe the country the impression
that the situation is worse than it actually is due to the weakness of
procedures and decisions. In the field of journalistic work, for example, if
Jordan's rating regarding freedoms is average, the arrest of one journalist
will make its rating drop by several points.”
Nimri said that Jordan's regression on the “ladder of
freedoms” is an important lesson for officials who need to perform in a coherent
way and avoid taking useless measures.
“The problem we have is that the different authorities in
the country are working with different agendas and there is no coordination
amongst them.”
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