In Transition: Jordan’s Media Between Freedom and Regulation: Media System of Jordan

According to US Department of State's Human Rights Reports in legal and societal discrimination and harassment remained a problem for religious minorities, and religious converts. The Jordanian Constitution provides for the freedom to practice one's religion in accordance with the customs in the Kingdom, unless they violate public order or morality.

Jordan's state religion is Islam. The Government bans conversion from Islam and efforts to proselytize Muslims. While proselytizing to Christians may not be banned, it is equally not favored and very hampered with bureaucratic red tape that renders it near impossible to legalize. The US State Department's International Religious Freedom Report of indicated that there were "no reports that the practice of any faith was prohibited" in Jordan. In fact, Jordan has been highlighted as a model of interfaith dialogue. The study also concluded that in the last year there were "no reports of misuse or neglect" of the Kingdom's diverse religious sites, as well as no reports of "harassment, discrimination, or restrictions" to worshippers.

Christians are well integrated into the Kingdom's political and economic landscapes.

Journalism in Jordan: A comparative analysis of press freedom in the post-Arab spring environment

At least one Christian holds a ministerial post in every government, nine seats in the seat Parliament are reserved for Christians, and a similar number is appointed to the Upper House by the King. They serve in the military, many have high positions in the army, and they have established good relations with the royal family.

Jordan is a destination for women and men subjected to trafficking in persons , specifically conditions of forced labor and, to a lesser extent, forced prostitution. Jordan is possibly a source and transit country for women and men subjected to conditions of forced labor and forced commercial sexual exploitation.

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There are also reports of Jordanian child laborers experiencing conditions of forced labor. Moroccan and Tunisian women are reportedly subjected to forced prostitution after migrating to Jordan to work in restaurants and night clubs. In addition, a few Chinese, Bangladeshi, Indian, Sri Lankan, and Vietnamese men and women encountered conditions indicative of forced labor in a few factories in the garment sector, including factories in Jordan's Qualifying Industrial Zones, such as the unlawful withholding of passports, delayed payment of wages, and, in a few cases, verbal and physical abuse.

NGOs and the media also report the forced labor of Egyptian workers in the construction, agriculture, and tourism sectors. Jordan's airports may be transit points for South- and Southeast-Asian men and women en route to employment opportunities in other Middle Eastern countries, where they experience labor exploitation after arrival. Some Jordanian children employed within the country as street vendors, carpenters, painters, mechanics, domestics, restaurant staff, or agricultural laborers may be exploited in situations of forced labor.

In , an Anti-Human Trafficking Law was endorsed by the government that severely restricts human trafficking in the Kingdom and creates a committee to promote public awareness on the issue. Jordan in cooperation with the Filipino Government worked out an agreement which gave a wide range of rights to domestic workers and access to legal protection, the first Arab country to do so. New regulations to regulate the working conditions of all domestic workers prescribe maximum working hours, rights to holiday and sick leave, and domestic workers' entitlement to regular contact with their own families.

According to Amnesty International, despite addressing important issues, the regulations are loosely worded and open to interpretation in certain respects, fail to specify mechanisms for determining wages, or to resolve long-standing problems related to nonpayment of wages or low wages. They also fail to provide effective safeguards against physical violence and sexual abuse by employers of domestic workers, the great majority of whom are women, and appear to place women at risk by requiring domestic workers to obtain their employer's permission before leaving their house.

While there has been some improvement in combating human trafficking, Jordan remains a Tier 2 country countries whose governments do not fully comply with the U. Trafficking Victims Protection Act's minimum standards, [27] but are making significant efforts to bring themselves into compliance with those standards in the U. State Department's Trafficking in Persons Report because victim assistance, public awareness raising, punishment of traffickers, and active cooperation with source country embassies remain limited. Torture is illegal in Jordan, however it remains widespread.

According to a report by Amnesty International , intelligence agents in Jordan frequently use torture to extract confessions from terror suspects. Common tactics include, "beating, sleep deprivation, extended solitary confinement, and physical suspension. Though Jordan has improved many procedures including a prison reform campaign in partnership with EU in this respect, agents at the General Intelligence Department remain largely immune to punishment.

In May , the UN Committee against Torture reiterated long-standing concerns at Jordan's failure to investigate and prosecute allegations of torture, to provide adequate protection against torture, and to prosecute perpetrators in accordance with the seriousness of the crime. It noted the "numerous, consistent and credible allegations of a widespread and routine practice of torture and ill-treatment" including in General Intelligence Department GID and Criminal Investigations Department detention. There have been several attempts to introduce harsh penalties on honor crimes, but, even with the strong backing of the royal family, these attempts have been rejected by Jordan's Lower House.

After a moratorium since there were eleven executions on 21 December , all detainees were men convicted of murder. State security, smuggling, arson resulting in death, and inciting armed riot cases are no longer capital crimes. In March , the Justice Minister announced that the crime of rape may cease to be a capital offense. In the future it is possible that the death penalty will be limited to cases of murder. At the end of the government reports that 46 people were under sentence of death and six new death sentences were imposed during the year.

Amnesty International reports nine new death sentences in Fifteen executions were carried on dawn of 4 March ; ten convicted with terrorism and the remaining 5 with murder and rape of minors. Those convicted with terrorism were part of a terror attack in Irbid , an attack on intelligence officers and the attack on Jordanian writer Nahed Hattar. Jordanian law prohibits arbitrary arrest and detention, but according to local and international human rights groups, the government does not always observe these prohibitions in practice.

Citizens and NGOs allege that the government continues to detain individuals, including political opposition members, for political reasons, and that governors continued to use administrative detentions for what appeared to be political reasons. In a few cases, the media and human rights organizations reported that authorities kept detainees in solitary confinement and denied them access to lawyers. Human rights observers claimed that police make arrests before obtaining warrants and prosecutors fail to file charges or seek extensions in a timely manner.

Prosecutors routinely request and are granted extensions that increase the period to file formal charges to as long as six months for a felony and two months for a misdemeanor.

Support to Media in Jordan

This practice can lengthen pretrial detention for protracted periods. Some detainees report not being allowed timely access to a lawyer, but authorities generally permit visits by family members. In facilities operated by the General Intelligence Directorate GID there are allegations of long periods of incommunicado detention, lengthy pretrial detention without being informed of charges, and not allowing defendants to meet with their lawyers or permitting meetings only shortly before trial.

Under the Crime Prevention Law, provincial governors may detain individuals suspected of planning to commit a crime or those who allegedly shelter thieves, habitually steal, or constitute a danger to the public, and in practice they used this provision widely. Those accused are subject to imprisonment or house arrest as "administrative detention" without formal charges. A detention order may be for as long as one year, but governors can impose new orders to prolong detentions.

International and national NGOs noted that governors routinely abused the law, imprisoning individuals when there was not enough evidence to convict them and prolonging detentions of prisoners whose sentences had expired. The law was also widely used to incarcerate women at risk of being honor crime victims. Jordanian law provides for an independent judiciary; however, the judiciary's independence in practice may be compromised by nepotism and the influence of special interests.

The law presumes that all defendants are innocent until proven guilty. Juries are not used. Most trials in civilian courts are open and procedurally sound, but the State Security Court SSC may close its proceedings to the public. In many cases defendants have no legal representation. Defendants can present witnesses on their behalf and question witnesses against them. Defense attorneys were generally granted access to government-held evidence relevant to their clients' cases.

Defendants can appeal verdicts and appeals are automatic for cases involving the death penalty. There are significant problems with the conditions in prisons, including poor legal services, under staffing, inadequate food and health care, poor sanitation standards, poor ventilation, extreme temperatures, inadequate access to potable water, ineffective pre-release and post-release programs, and insufficient basic and emergency medical care. The construction of four new prisons reduced overcrowding somewhat.

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Freedom House rates women's rights in five categories, each scored from one lowest level of freedom to five highest level: Limited economic opportunity is one of the main reasons for poor scores in many of the above categories. It is not just discrimination that accounts for high rates of unemployment, but also genuine economic difficulties and shortages of jobs. In Freedom House criticized Jordan for its poor women's rights record, but also acknowledged that the "status of women in Jordan is currently undergoing a historic transition, with women achieving a number of positive gains and new rights.

Educated women were granted suffrage in , but it was not until that all women received the right to vote and run as candidates in parliamentary elections. In , the first female candidate was elected to the lower house of parliament and the first woman was appointed to the upper house. Women have assumed high-level governmental positions in greater numbers, gaining appointments as ministers and lawmakers with increasing frequency. An average of three ministerial portfolios has been assigned to women in each cabinet since , and a gender-based quota system, first introduced for the lower house of parliament in , was expanded to municipal councils in From until the end of , the women's movement made a number of important gains, including the publication of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women CEDAW in the official gazette, which gave it the force of law.

Additionally, the government has taken steps to address the problem of domestic abuse, including the February opening of the country's first major women's shelter, the Family Reconciliation House, and the March promulgation of the Family Protection Law, designed to regulate the handling of domestic abuse cases by medical workers and law enforcement bodies. Today, Jordanian women largely enjoy legal equality in freedom of movement, health care, education, political participation, and employment. And, while the attitudes of police officers, judges, and prosecutors regarding the treatment of victims of domestic violence and honor crimes have undergone a positive shift in recent years, gender-based violence remains a serious concern.

There remains gender-based discrimination in family laws, in the provision of pensions and social security benefits, and on the societal level due to deeply entrenched patriarchal norms that restrict female employment and property ownership. A Jordanian man may marry a foreigner and pass on his nationality to his children; women cannot.

Nor can women pass on their nationality to their husbands. Women are no longer required to seek permission from their male guardians or husbands before obtaining or renewing their passports, but fathers may still prevent their children from traveling regardless of the mother's wishes. Muslim women are prohibited from marrying men of other religions unless the spouse agrees to convert to Islam, while Muslim men are permitted to wed Christian and Jewish wives.

In , the U. Department of Labor 's Findings on the Worst Forms of Child Labor reported that Jordan has "made a moderate advancement in efforts to eliminate the worst forms of child labor" but that a percentage as low as 0. Jordan was reported to make use of forced labor in the garment industry. Legal and societal discrimination and harassment remained a problem for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex LGBTI persons in Jordan.

Jordan was one of the first countries in the Middle east to establish a national human rights institution NHRI. That status was subjected to special review twice by the ICC in , and reaffirmed; it was again accorded A status under the ordinary review procedure in Jordan is a party to many human rights agreements, including: Jordan was the only country in the Middle East and North Africa that is a member of the International Criminal Court ICC , which prosecutes those who commit crimes against humanity , war crimes , aggression , and genocide , [51] until Tunisia became a member in From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

This article needs to be updated. Please update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information. Lina Ejeilat, the editor-in-chief of 7iber objects to the requirement that media outlets that register with the government have a member of the Jordanian Press Association JPA serve as editor-in-chief. The government implemented the new rule forcing the registration of news websites two weeks after the International Press Institute, a Vienna-based global organization that advocates for responsible and free journalism, ended their conference in Amman Seigelbaum, Daoud Kuttab, a Jordanian journalist and founder of the online outlet AmmanNet, disagreed: This decision is a huge blow to freedom of expression in Jordan and will further compromise press freedom status.

In July , two activists were arrested after taking part in a televised debate about the impact of the amendments to the press and publications law. No further details about their case can be found, but Khader was sentenced to three months in prison in on different charges involving participation in a protest. Assaf was quoted as a spokesperson for the Jordanian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood, an Islamist organization that worries governments throughout the Middle East France 24, Observers saw the arrests as an overt method to discourage public discussion of the amended media law.

The two journalists were held in jail for four months and then released on bail Ghazal, In a sign, perhaps, of worry about violating the penal code, the reporter for the Jordan Times referred to the offended party abstractly—as a royal family member from a Gulf state. The case has seen no further developments as of January The Paris-based press freedom organization Reporters Without Borders complained about the vague nature of the law: In June , Jordanian security forces raided an Iraqi television station in Amman and arrested about a dozen staff members.

Officials first accused the station of operating without a license and then later cited a violation of anti-terrorism laws. The arrested journalists and staff members are facing up to five years in prison. He founded the Jordanian news website AmmanNet and now serves as the director general for the Community Media Network, a non-profit organization dedicated to advancing independent media in the Middle East. Lina Ejeilat also mentioned above is the co-founder and editor of 7iber. She also teaches digital journalism and social media at the Jordan Media Institute. But, he said, the government eventually grew tired of giving both citizens and journalists space.

Kuttab noted that journalists would wear orange vests while covering protests so that the police would know they were members of the press. He also mentioned the anti-terrorism law update as a worry for journalists. Asked for an example, she said that they published an article questioning military spending and its lack of transparency and received no complaints from official sources.

Ejeilat also worried about the registration of websites. While she had resisted the government directive for more than a year by changing the web address every time the government blocked the site, 7iber finally ceded and received a license in December Discussion The answer to the first research question appears clear—Jordan is suffering from less press freedom rather than more in the aftermath of the Arab Spring. The developments described above show that reporting and engaging in critical journalism has become more difficult over the past few years.

The press freedom rankings reflect the reality on the ground. In this section, the authors offer a comparative legal analysis to examine actions taken in Jordan and contrast them with approaches in other jurisdictions. Countries with more protections for press freedom have dealt with similar issues but have better ensured that freedom of expression is upheld. In these countries, society sees a benefit in the role of a free press can play by providing scrutiny of the powerful and helping to combat corruption. Such an environment ensures that journalists will be diligent in their coverage of government.



The legal notion that public figures must withstand more scrutiny than private figures has gained acceptance around the world. For instance, the Los Angeles Times won a Pulitzer Prize in when it revealed that local elected officials in the small town of Bell, California, had paid themselves exorbitant salaries from the city funds. If the city council and other town officials had the power to arrest journalists, then the reporting would likely have never happened.

Human rights in Jordan - Wikipedia

In the Jordanian case, the arrest of the two journalists was aimed at protecting a public figure, rather than protecting journalists to report on public corruption. In many countries journalism is simply not a profession that is licensed by the government. Courts and legislatures have reasoned that licensing media outlets gives too much power to the government because officials could revoke the credentials of media outlets whose reports embarrass them.

In countries with established press freedoms, the protection of reputation is handled through civil lawsuits that result in financial punishments. In these countries, insult laws and criminal libel laws have been abolished or are simply not used. In a country where press freedoms are more protected, the royal could not have prodded the government to make an arrest and shut down the website. Instead, the allegedly defamed party would file a civil lawsuit alleging defamation and seeking damages and a court order to remove the content. The royal could also file a lawsuit against YouTube since the service is hosting the video.

Criminal defamation is not a justifiable restriction on freedom of expression; all criminal defamation laws should be abolished and replaced, where necessary, with appropriate civil defamation laws. Such a system allows both public and private figures to protect their reputations while ensuring that journalists operate with the freedom to publish information that is true yet potentially embarrassing. Ensuring that truth is a defense against a libel lawsuit prevents individuals from protecting reputations that they do not deserve.

In another case, the U. These examples show that reputations can be protected without the need for criminal arrests. The purpose of anti-terrorism laws are obviously important to society—if national security and public order cannot be maintained, then all of the other laws protecting freedoms are worthless. Internationally, governments have walked a fine line balancing the need to establish public order with the protection of journalism.

Shutting down websites or blocking content of extremist propaganda has been seen in many countries, including the United States and other countries that hold high press freedom rankings. In , for instance, the United States blocked the Lebanese television news channel Al Manar from broadcasting on U. Al Manar is owned and operated by Hezbollah, the Lebanese political faction that the United States considers a terrorist organization.

Other countries have banned Al Manar as well, although these nations used other laws. For instance, France banned the channel for violating its hate speech laws and breaking a promise to eliminate anti-Semitic speech Carvajal, The general criticism of using anti-terrorist laws to curb speech—whether in Jordan or the United States—is that such laws give broad powers to government and security forces that could be abused. As for whether the media system features liberal or conservative journalists, observers may differ.

As interviews with the journalists noted, reporters and editors are practicing self-censorship, which speaks to a conservative mindset. However, several journalists did push boundaries as far as possible given the authoritarian actions from the government. Several journalists have been arrested since , a sign that they stepped beyond boundaries in an effort to expand press freedoms.

But, was a relatively quiet year indicating, perhaps, that journalists may be withdrawing from contentious debate and siding with the security-minded status quo from the government. The fact that most of the online news outlets acquiesced to the government registration demand may point to a conservative approach. Certainly the mainstream outlets—which rarely run afoul of the government—have largely given up on challenging the status quo.

Conclusion As can be seen by this analysis, Jordan has suffered some setbacks since the initial promise of the Arab Spring. Obviously, the government is trying to cope with a precarious situation—extremists are running rampant throughout the region and many militants use social media speech and other digital media to further their agendas. Still, Jordan and other countries in the Middle East should draw a stark line between fighting extremism and stifling legitimate journalism and dissenting speech.

The current laws that restrict press freedom are often holdovers from the colonial powers that exercised control over the Middle East for centuries. Nobel Prize-winning economist Amartya Sen has noted that the British government used repressive press laws throughout their empire to subjugate the local populations Sen, When the British left the area, they also left their approach to freedom of expression. Many observers have noted that Jordan and other Arab countries must revise their approach toward freedom of the press and speech.

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The new media environment demands such a change. As Palestinian journalist Kuttab notes: Jordanians, the majority of whom are under 25, are able to quickly overcome direct website blockades by electronically bypassing them, but the government does not trust them to be mature enough to decipher the content of the news.

To move forward in this new media environment, policymakers should consider revising laws around issues of criminal defamation, protecting public order, and the licensing of journalists. Retrieved October 7, , from http: Journal of Media Economics, 26 1 , 4— Media Development in Bangladesh. Mass Media and Political Accountability. Retrieved March 21, , from http: Broadcasting, Voice, and Accountability: France bans Al Manar TV channel. The New York Times. Jordanian authorities raid station, arrest staff. Retrieved January 8, , from http: Media ownership and prosperity.

Between the Newsroom and the Classroom. International Communication Gazette, 69 1 , Islamists protest after King dissolves parliament. State Security Court releases detained journalists on bail. Transitioning to Free Speech: Cardozo Law Review, 6 , Digital Media and the Arab Spring. Journalists Jailed for Website Posting. Beyond the Four Theories of the Press: From Vanguard to Vanquished? The Tabloid Press in Jordan. Political Communication, 19 2 , — Media Freedom, Political Knowledge, and Participation. The Journal of Economic Perspectives, 22 2.