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AMMAN — The Lower House on Tuesday defined the eligibility of any individual aspiring to become a member of the Jordan Press Association (JPA), limiting the journalism profession to holders of bachelor’s degrees.

The decision was taken during deputies’ deliberations over the draft amendments to the JPA Law. 

MPs endorsed a provision in the legislation under which holders of high school diplomas can no longer become JPA members. 

Excluded from this stipulation are journalists who have been practising the profession for at least eight years and can prove it, as well as photo journalists.

Under the new amendments, MPs also decided to extend the training period for holders of media and journalism diplomas to three years from two years in the current version of the bill.

The aim of these changes, according to several MPs, is to protect the profession from any “intruders”, who usually violate the rules of journalism and its code of conduct.

Under these amendments, only holders of bachelor’s degrees in any field are eligible to join the JPA and practise journalism, while those who specialise in fields other than media and journalism will have to undergo two years of training before they can join the association. 

Undergraduates who studied press and media must train for one year before they can register as members of the JPA, while holders of master’s degrees will have to undergo a six-month training course before they can join the association.

However, PhD holders can join immediately, according to the new amendments, which make it impossible for high school graduates to join the JPA from now on. 

In addition, the amendments stipulate that diploma holders from any polytechnic institute who specialised in fields other than media and journalism cannot join the JPA unless they go through a three-year training course in advance.

The Lower House will continue its deliberations over these draft amendments during Wednesday’s session. 

AMMAN — One of the country’s three telecom operators has submitted an official request to acquire frequencies to introduce fourth generation (4G) services in the Kingdom, a government official said on Tuesday.

ICT Minister Azzam Sleit, who did not wish to name the company, said the door remains open for other operators to acquire such frequencies to introduce 4G services, which enable data transfer rates of up to 150 megabits per second.

Although only one of the operators officially applied to introduce 4G services, the other two showed interest, Sleit told The Jordan Times, adding that they can apply at any time to obtain the necessary frequencies.

There are three telecom operators in Jordan: Orange Jordan, Zain Jordan and Umniah.

The minister said the government resorted to directly talking with the existing operators and urged them to apply for 4G licences after it turned down bids from two other companies.

In February, the government said it received two bids from KULACOM Jordan and a US-based company called “Ameriphone” to acquire licences to provide 4G services in the country. But the government rejected the bids as KULACOM was incapable of providing a financial guarantee, which is against the tender’s conditions, while the US-based company provided a financial guarantee from a foreign bank instead of a bank in Jordan. 

Ameriphone also provided an old certificate of registration that dated back to 2009, which is also a violation of the conditions.

AMMAN — A week-long event set to offer Jordanians a taste of French cuisine in six different venues in Amman and the Dead Sea starts on Wednesday.

Customers dining in one of the six selected restaurants will be able to experience the French dishes that were included in the UNESCO World Heritage List, according to Charles-Henri Gros, director of Institut Français in Amman, which is organising the event.

The fourth annual French Gastronomy Week is a “unique” opportunity to build bridges between Jordan and France, Gros told reporters at a press conference on Tuesday to announce the event.

In addition to utilising their cooking skills, the French chefs will also learn about cooking in Jordan, and  the kinds of ingredients on offer in the local market, he added.

Speaking at the press conference, chef Claire Verneil said she and her colleagues are looking forward to sharing their experiences with Jordanian chefs, adding that they will also be preparing different dishes every day.

The gastronomy week is organised in partnership with the Greater Amman Municipality, Le Club de la Table Française and Euro-Toques France. 

Over the week that will run up until April 15, French meals will be served at the Four Seasons, Grand Hyatt, InterContinental, Kempinski Amman, Kempinski Ishtar Dead Sea and Al Qasr Metropole hotels.

AMMAN — Nine out of 10 Syrian refugee households in Jordan have at least one family member with a medical condition, including chronic diseases, conflict-related injuries and psychological problems, according to a recent assessment.

Conducted by Care International, the assessment covered 384 Syrian families living outside refugee camps.

“CARE International voices its concern about the deteriorating health situation of the almost 600,000 Syrian refugees living in Jordan,” the organisation said in a statement sent to The Jordan Times on Tuesday.

“Syrian refugees, living outside of camps in Jordan, are increasingly unable to cover expenses for medical treatment, in particular for chronic and other costly health conditions,” the statement added.

The government, with the support of the international community, has made “considerable efforts to expand health services to attend to the needs of Syrian refugees”, according to CARE International.

Although Syrian families that are registered with the UN have access to basic health services, 23 per cent of the surveyed Syrian refugees said they resorted to private institutions because the required treatment was not available at public health facilities or there were no services in their area.

“Refugee families have to spend on average $90 per month for medical services and medication, a huge amount of money for families who have no or little means of income,” the statement said.

“Refugees in Jordan are struggling to afford healthcare and medication. There are more and more cases where people die of diseases which are usually either preventable or treatable,” CARE Jordan Country Director Salam Kanaan said.  

Meanwhile, the Health Ministry said it provides healthcare services for Syrian refugees registered with the UNHCR.

Hatem Azruie, the ministry’s spokesperson, said treating Syrians in public hospitals is adding pressure to health facilities.

“Despite the burden on the sector due to serving Syrian refugees, the international assistance the sector receives does not even cover expenses,” Azruie said, without providing figures on the total cost of treating Syrian refugees.

However, Interior Minister Hussein Majali has previously said that the cost of providing medication for Syrian refugees is JD23 million.

Health services provided to Syrian refugees are not confined to medication, according to Azruie, who noted that the ministry, in cooperation with UNICEF and WHO, has conducted immunisation campaigns for several diseases such as measles and polio.

According to Khaled Abu Rumman, director of the National Programme to Stop TB, 109 tuberculosis cases have been detected among Syrian refugees in the Kingdom, 40 of them among residents of the Zaatari Refugee Camp, while the rest were among those living in host communities.

The ministry supervises the medication for all refugees diagnosed with TB as part of the “Public Health Strategy among Syrian Refugees” launched earlier this year.

AMMAN — One person was killed and six were injured in a four-car accident on the Hashimiyeh-Balama Road on Monday.

Civil Defence Department personnel administered first aid to the injured before taking them to Prince Hashem Military Hospital.

AMMAN – A worker at a carton warehouse was injured on Monday in a fire at the facility.

Zarqa Civil Defence Department firefighters managed to extinguish the fire, which engulfed the warehouse, and sent the worker to Zarqa Public Hospital, where he was listed in stable condition.

 A committee was formed to investigate the cause of the blaze. 

AMMAN — Defence attorneys on Monday gave their closing statements in the trial of 12 Islamists charged with attempting to join Syrian jihadist groups, challenging the court’s ability to try citizens for plotting military acts outside the country.

Attorney Taher Nassar questioned the State Security Court’s (SSC) charges of “plotting acts unauthorised by the government and attempting to cross into Syria illegally”, charging that the crime has no legal basis in the Jordanian Constitution.

“Where in the Jordanian Constitution does it allow authorities to deny a citizen’s right to leave the country? Where is the item in the Jordanian Constitution allowing authorities to arrest citizens for acts outside Jordan while they are still on Jordanian soil?” 

“How can their alleged act be declared against the government’s interest, when the Syrian Coalition of the Opposition has been recognised by the majority of the Arab world and Arab states continue to supply the Free Syrian Army with arms?” Nassar remarked.

The attorney claimed that the charges, which the court first began introducing in mid-2013 and are not directly related to an existing item in the Penal Code, were “politically motivated” and without a “constitutional basis”.

Authorities contend that the 12 men, all alleged members of the hardline Jihadi Salafist movement, had attempted to cross into Syria illegally to join Islamist militants, and represented a “security threat” to both Jordan and Syria.

The defendants insist that they did not know each other prior to their arrests, which occurred at a farm in northern Jordan and near the village of Al Turra, a few kilometres south of the Jordanian-Syrian border. 

Two of the accused, Hussein and Sufian Samamreh, claimed that they had enlisted the assistance of their fellow defendants in order to travel to Daraa to bring back relatives in the besieged southern Syrian city. 

If convicted, the defendants face prison sentences ranging from two-and-a-half to five years.

The court, presided over by Judge Ahmed Tarawneh, set the final hearing for April 28.

Also on Monday, the court opened the trial of two citizens charged with attempting to smuggle groups of suspected fighters into Syria.

In the opening trial of Amman resident Omar Ibrahim and Karak resident Hamzeh Majali, the court listened to the testimony of the General Intelligence Department officer who apprehended the two suspects near the 370-kilometre Jordanian-Syrian border in January this year.

The court adjourned the trial to April 21.

The case is the latest in a series involving Jordanians with suspected ties to Syrian Islamist groups, with authorities having detained 180 suspected jihadists over the past six months.

Officials maintain that the growing influx of foreign fighters into Syria represents a direct security threat to Jordan, with the SSC handing  down prison sentences of up to 15 years to over 20 individuals suspected of Syrian jihadist ties since December 2013.

More than 2,000 Jordanians are currently serving among the ranks of Islamist militant groups in Syria, according to Islamist sources, with the bulk fighting under the umbrella of the Nusra Front and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.

AMMAN – The Jordan Armed Forces will host the sixth Annual Warrior Competition, which will be held at the King Abdullah II Special Operations Training Centre (KASOTC).

The five-day competition, which starts on April 30, will include 38 teams from 19 Arab and foreign countries,

The event, which coincides with the 2014 Special Operations Forces Exhibition (SOFEX), will test the endurance, perseverance, team work, warrior fighting spirit and physical ability of the teams. 

AMMAN – Twenty-three journalists on Monday took the oath of office as members of the Jordan Press Association (JPA), before Minister of State for Media Affairs and Communications, Mohammad Momani.

During the ceremony, Momani underlined the need for journalists to be well-read.

JPA President Tariq Momani also called on the new journalists to be objective and accurate when covering news, urging the government to address challenges facing media outlets. 

AMMAN — The Press and Publications Department (PPD) on Monday said 156 news websites have so far rectified their situation and are registered and licensed.

“Although 156 websites corrected their situation in accordance with the Press and Publications Law, several online news outlets still have not registered,” Fayez Shawabkeh, director of the PPD, told The Jordan Times over the phone.

These unregistered and unlicensed websites are currently blocked by the government, Shawabkeh added.

In June 2013, the government started blocking unlicensed news websites after giving them a deadline to register.

“Most of the blocked websites are inactive and not updated by their owners,” Shawabkeh said. He added that the owners of some of the unlicensed websites have resorted to using certain techniques to avoid being blocked, but stressed that the PPD is monitoring the situation and is preventing the blocked sites from avoiding detection.

“Some of the blocked sites try to use other links to direct readers to their pages, but we also block these links,” Shawabkeh said.

Many of the news websites that were supposed to register instead chose to change the theme of their sites, thus, avoiding the need to register.

“Some of the sites stopped publishing news and became specialised in certain issues, such as technology or education. Specialised websites do not need to register as long as they do not publish news,” he added.

Shawabkeh stressed that the authorities will continue to block unlicensed and unregistered news sites, urging owners of such sites to abide by the law, which he said “seeks to protect the interests of individuals and institutions”.

The law requires websites that publish local news to register and obtain licences from the PPD. Registration fees have been lowered from JD10,000 to JD1,000.

The law also stipulates that the chief editor of a news website must be a Jordan Press Association member. Additionally, the law mandates a special court to look into media cases and stipulates a four-month deadline for the tribunal to rule on any case it hears.

Moreover, the legislation holds online media publishers accountable for comments their readers might post and prohibits them from publishing comments not relevant to the article to which they are attached, also requiring that all comments be archived for no less than six months.