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AMMAN — An average of six instances of hate speech are published daily in Arab print outlets, researcher Fatima Aqarbeh said at a conference on Monday on combating hate speech and extremism in print and online outlets.

The conference, organised by Al Rai Centre for Strategic Studies and “iDare for sustainable development”, was attended by academics, politicians and journalists who discussed ways to fight the spread of “hate speech”.

“iDare” is a nonprofit Jordanian social enterprise that launched the “#idare_to_love_speech” initiative to encourage young people to engage in positive and constructive online dialogue.

The print media outlets of countries that witnessed revolutions over the past five years featured 3,086 words that promoted extremism and hatred, Aqarbeh said, citing recent studies.

She noted that countries with the widest spread of hate speech were the first to witness revolutions during what was referred to as “the Arab Spring” starting in December 2010.

Former education minister Mohammad Wahsh said at the meeting that school curricula are not the reason why young Jordanians are unaware of the importance of fighting online hate speech and forms of extremism.

“The problem we face in Jordan is... caused by some of those who teach young Jordanians and ultimately use education for political goals,” he said.

Participants stressed the importance of language use when disseminating news and the way the absence of the right terms might mislead the reader or the viewer, as the term “terrorism” adapts to the identity of the speaker.

Wahsh said that whoever promotes hatred and radicalism should be held legally accountable to curb the use of hate speech targeting certain religions or ethnicities.

For his part, Ro’ya TV channel host Fuad Karsheh said there is no such thing as “direct” hate speech broadcast on televisions and radios.

“Hate speech and extremism exist in all areas of society; there is a ‘soft’ start in school curricula to indirectly promote ideas to a student that would later develop into hatred of the ‘other’,” Karsheh continued.

Participants discussed the drawbacks of using social media to comment on happenings, referring to the attack on Ro’ya TV channel in September as an example.

“The hate speech levelled on Ro’ya was planned for a specific period of time — which then became a war on a [certain group of people]; it uncovered some morals we, as Jordanians, have to question,” Karsheh said.

Researcher Hamdi Murad said Jordanians of different religions have been coexisting for 14 centuries.

Therefore, most of the attendees agreed on “criminalising” any published speech that encourages discrimination and hatred between people of the same society.

AMMAN — A delegation from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development board of directors is visiting Jordan from Tuesday to Friday, an EBRD statement said Monday.

The visit will enable EBRD directors to better understand priorities for the local economy and maintain close dialogue with authorities and the private sector, according to the statement.

The four-day visit to Jordan will include tours of projects financed by EBRD, including the Sun Edison Solar Power Plant in Maan, Al Manakher power plant, Abdali Retail training centre, and Abdali District Heating and Cooling Station.

EBRD has committed $475 million across 25 projects in various sectors of the economy in Jordan, in addition to $95 million worth of trade facilitation credit lines with local banks, according to the statement.

AMMAN — Ministry of Industry, Trade and Supply Secretary General Yousef Shamali on Monday said the ministry sold the controversial Polish wheat shipment after it floated a tender. 

Speaking to the Jordan News Agency, Petra, he said the wheat shipment was sold because it was not granted entry to Jordan for failing to meet Jordan Food and Drug Administration standards.

In accordance with the conditions of the tender, the buyer has one month to re-export the shipment, Shamali added, according to Petra.

AMMAN — The State Security Court (SSC) on Monday convicted five defendants of promoting and recruiting for the Daesh terrorist group using the Internet.

In separate cases, the court sentenced the five men to three-year prison terms with hard labour for publishing pro-Daesh propaganda online.

The SSC’s rulings are in line with the Anti-Terrorism Law, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.

AMMAN — Minister of State for Media Affairs and Communications Mohammad Momani on Monday stressed the importance of reaching a decision that all parties agree on in regard to forming a council for media complaints.

Momani, who is also the government’s spokesperson, made his remarks during a meeting organised by the Centre for Defending the Freedom of Journalists, during which attendees discussed the means to establish the projected council as part of the national media strategy.

Momani said it would be difficult to form the council as an independent commission in light of the government’s approach to cancel independent public organisations to reduce financial burdens on the budget, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported. 

AMMAN — The Public Sector Development Ministry, in cooperation with the Civil Service Bureau and the General Budget Department, has prepared a report on matching human resources with their institutional tasks and roles in the Iftaa Department, a ministry statement said Monday.

The report, which was sent to Prime Minister Abdullah Ensour, revealed a shortage in staff at the department. Public Sector Development Minister Khleef Al Khawaldeh said the report recommended redistributing the employees in the organisational units to benefit from their expertise.

AMMAN — The practice of festive firing is “a flagrant violation of the law” and a danger that threatens the lives of innocent people, Public Security Department (PSD) Director Maj. Gen. Atef Saudi said Monday.

Speaking at a workshop to combat celebratory gunfire at Al Hussein Cultural Centre, he said some people are still firing gunshots at social occasions despite all warnings by security and concerned parties, according to a PSD statement.

Grand Mufti of Jordan Abdul Karim Khasawneh said festive shooting is forbidden in Islam for the fear and anxiety it causes and the danger it poses to people’s lives.

AMMAN — Deputy Prime Minister and Education Minister Mohammed Thneibat has decided that students whose families are beneficiaries of the National Aid Fund or are sons of Jordan Armed Forces-Arab Army injured personnel are to be exempted from paying the registration fees for the General Secondary Certificate Examination (Tawjihi), the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported on Monday.

Education Ministry Spokesperson Walid Jallad told Petra that the decision applies to all students fitting the criteria. 

AMMAN – His Majesty King Abdullah on Sunday referred the 2015 decentralization bill back to the Lower House on grounds of its incompatibility with the Constitution.

The King cited the reform-oriented bill's discord with the Constitutional Court's interpretation of Article 121 of the Constitution, according to a Royal Court statement.

In the statement listing the reasons for withholding his endorsement of the draft law, the King cited Paragraph A of Article 6 of the law concerning the establishment of governorate councils as incompatible with the Constitutional Court's ruling, the statement said.

Asked for interpretation of Article 121 of the Constitution by the Lower House, the    Constitutional Court has issued a ruling stipulating that any units or councils established under a law should be administratively and financial independent from the central government.

 The said article stipulates that the affairs of municipal and local councils should be administered by municipal or local councils in accordance with laws enacted specifically for that purpose.

As it deliberated the law, the Senate reworded Paragraph A of Article 6 to read:" Each governorate shall have a council called 'governorate council'". The senators removed from the said provision the House-added phrase that the councils established under the law should enjoy complete financial and administrative independence. 

In September, the two Houses of Parliament passed the 20-article decentralisation bill in a joint session after they disagreed twice on several provisions. As the Constitutional Court's opinion supported the deputies' version, the Parliament's final say was unconstitutional.  

BAIJI, Iraq — Iraqi forces advanced on three fronts against the Daesh terror group Sunday, flushing out pockets of resistance in and around Baiji, and closing in on Ramadi and Hawijah, officers said.

Iraqi security and allied paramilitary forces last week launched a broad offensive on Baiji, about 200 kilometres north of Baghdad.

The city and nearby refinery — the country's largest — have been one of the worst flashpoints since Daesh launched a sweeping offensive across Iraq's Sunni Arab heartland in June 2014.

Anti-Daesh forces, including thousands from the Popular Mobilisation (Hashed Al Shaabi) force that includes many Tehran-backed Shiite militias, have reconquered most of Baiji and its surroundings.

“They are still combing some neighbourhoods of Baiji, including Tamim to the west and the market area in the centre,” a police brigadier general said.

“There are still a few IS [Daesh] members in there,” he said.

“The security forces and Hashed forces took up positions to take control of some neighbourhoods in Baiji, searching for bombs and booby-trapped houses,” an army major general said.

He described the latest advance in the Baiji area as “the biggest victory since 10th of June 2014”, when Daesh made massive territorial gains with a lightning offensive that saw Iraq’s federal forces collapse completely.

Since they launched a counter-attack last year, government and allied forces have retaken all areas south of Baghdad and others north of the capital, including the city of Tikrit.

The government forces pushed past Baiji on the main road leading north to Mosul, cutting off Daesh militants holding the city of Hawijah, east of the Tigris river.

Army and police, backed by hundreds of Sunni tribal fighters incorporated into the Hashed Al Shaabi, began an operation Sunday aimed at surrounding Hawijah.

“The operation started in two areas, one west of Kirkuk around Al Fatha and the other south of Kirkuk near Allas oil field,” a major general said.

The Kurdish peshmerga forces were not directly involved in this operation but they have mande progress of their own in recent weeks, pushing southwest from Kirkuk, which they control.

A security coordination meeting between federal and Kurdish forces and politicians was held in Kirkuk Sunday, governor Najmeddin Karim said.

Iraqi forces also continued to tighten the noose around Ramadi, the capital of the western province of Anbar, which Daesh captured in May this year.

Iraq’s Counter-Terrorism Service is leading operations around Ramadi, with backing from the security forces, Sunni tribesmen opposed to Daesh and US-led coalition air strikes.

“Albu Farraj neighbourhood is under full control now. The city of Ramadi is completely isolated from the northern side now,” said Major General Ismail Mahalawi, from Anbar Operations Command.

A coalition spokesman said last week the number of Daesh militants still inside Ramadi was estimated at 600 to 1,000.