Int’l Press Institute urges gov’t to revisit laws ‘restricting media freedom’

AMMAN — The International Press Institute (IPI) called on the government on Tuesday to immediately suspend its block of news websites in the country and embark on reforming laws that threaten press freedoms.

“The blocking action not only caused disruptions and financial hardship for the rapidly growing Internet news market, but the law itself sets a dangerous precedent for other Middle East governments to impose similar obligations on the… media,” the IPI said in a report e-mailed to The Jordan Times.

The report, “Press freedom in Jordan: Amending the licensing law for news websites”, said the Press and Publications Law encouraged more self-censorship among media personnel.

In mid-2013, the government blocked 291 news websites for violating the law, which requires them to register for a licence as a news site and to have a chief editor who is a member of the Jordan Press Association.

In its report, the IPI called for repealing these provisions.

“Publishers and managers of news sites should decide whom to employ, not the law,” the institute said.

It also called for establishing a special committee to review all media laws to ensure that they comply with Chapter II, Article 15 of the Constitution, which guarantees freedom of the press and the right of government non-interference in the media.

The IPI also called for repealing provisions of the recently amended Anti-Terrorism Law that allows for trying journalists before State Security Courts, despite promises to end such practices. 

The Anti-Terrorism Law should be amended to ensure that journalists have the freedom to report on national security and that the right of legitimate dissent is not restrained, the press institute said. 

Jordanian journalists operate in a “restrictive environment where self-censorship is the norm”. Nonetheless, they are “better off than many of their colleagues in other Arab nations”, the report said.

Yet the country suffered a “blow to its reputation” with the changes to the Press and Publications Law, making Jordan one of the few countries to make it legally binding for Internet news providers to have a licence to operate, the IPI said.

“IPI believes Jordan’s registration requirement unjustly imposes direct government control over Internet news providers, giving political authorities the power to decide who can operate, who is in charge of editorial direction, and gives them the authority to revoke the licence,” IPI Executive Director Alison Bethel McKenzie said in the report.

“Jordan’s regulation represents unfair interference in the global exchange of ideas and information and goes against the government’s own assurances that [it supports] independent media and uncensored access to information,” McKenzie said.