Jordan climbs 6 spots on World Press Freedom Index

AMMAN — Jordan ranked 132th out of 180 countries in the 2018 World Press Freedom Index, advancing six positions compared to its ranking in 2017.

According to the Reporters Without Borders' website, seen by The Jordan Times on Wednesday, the Kingdom scored 41.71 on a global level in the 2018 ranking, improving from the previous year, when it scored 43.24.

In its report on the country's press environment, the media watchdog noted that Jordan’s media "take care to observe the red lines set by the authorities". 

Journalists are subject to close surveillance by the intelligence services, the report added, and must be affiliated to the state-controlled Jordanian Press Association. 

"The authorities have stepped up control, especially over the Internet, since 2012, when the press and publications law was overhauled. Hundreds of websites have been blocked since 2013, mostly on the grounds that they have no licence," Reporters Without Borders said on their website.

Under the 2015 cyber-crime law, articles published in online newspapers and posts by citizen-journalists on social networks can be punishable by jail sentences and can constitute grounds for pre-trial detention, they added. 

"Security grounds are often used to prosecute and sometimes jail journalists under an extremely vague terrorism law," the index noted. 

The report claimed that gag orders issued by the media commission restrict the public debate and limit journalists’ access to information on sensitive issues.

It also noted that Jordan participated in the Saudi-led "diplomatic offensive" against Qatar in 2017, closing Al Jazeera’s Amman bureau.