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AMMAN — Jordan has dropped seven places on the Press Freedom Index 2014, ranking 141st among 180 world countries.

The recently issued Reporters without Borders annual index said that in Jordan, “the Arab Spring and the Syrian conflict have led the authorities to tighten their grip on the media and, in particular, the Internet, despite an outcry from civil society.”

It added that access to around 300 news websites was blocked within Jordan in June 2013 under a new media law that “drastically restricts” online freedom of information.

The amended Press and Publications Law gives the Press and Publications Department director the authority to block news websites in Jordan that do not register with the department.

Hundreds of websites were blocked in June last year for failing to register.

The 2012 amendments, which came into effect in January 2013, stipulate that the chief editor of a news website must be a JPA member, mandate a special court to look into media cases, and set a four-month deadline for this tribunal to rule on any case it hears.

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

Government officials have maintained that the new version of the Press and Publications Law is aimed at regulating electronic media outlets to ensure their integrity, dismissing any suggestions that the law seeks to restrict media freedoms.

Jordan Press Association (JPA) President Tareq Momani acknowledged that there have been setbacks in media freedoms, adding that the amendments to the Press and Publications Law are restrictive.

He said in a phone interview that the JPA has opposed the amendments that targeted online media, which he described as conflicting with the Constitution and the reform process in the country.

Momani also criticised referring two journalists last year to the State Security Court, noting that this contradicts the law that stipulates referring them to the first instance court instead.

Kuwait, which was ranked 91st in the overall ranking, came in first place among Arab countries on the index followed by Lebanon, Qatar, the UAE, South Sudan, Algeria, Tunisia, Oman, Morocco, Libya, Palestine and Jordan.

Finland came in first place, followed by the Netherlands and Norway for the second consecutive year.

Eritrea came at the bottom of the ranking in 180th place.

AMMAN — On a hilltop of the capital, a museum with some of the world’s most unique cars and motorbikes recounts a century of Hashemite rule.

The Royal Automobile Museum was built in 2003 under instructions from His Majesty King Abdullah, specifically to pay tribute to the eventful life of his late father, His Majesty King Hussein, who passed away in 1999.

Like his son, King Hussein was a local trophy-winning car racer, who also had a passion for motorbikes. He was often seen in public riding top-notch motorcycles that drew crowds amazed by the powerful machines.

One of his special moments is captured in a photo that made the cover of Conde Nast Travellers’ Magazine in 1994, showed him in a leather jacket, sporting a white beard and a beaming smile as he rode a red motorbike with Her Majesty Queen Noor sitting behind him in the southern desert of Wadi Rum.

“It’s unique and invaluable,” said museum director Raja Gargour of the collection of more than 70 cars, with models dating back to 1916, and 50 motorbikes, with models from 1907 through today.

He said all were operational and underwent maintenance since they were brought in from a Royal palace storehouse.

Historically, Jordan’s location at a crossroads for East-West caravan routes helped it become one of the first nations in the region to acquire automobiles in 1924, when Sharif Hussein Bin Ali, the great grandfather of King Abdullah, brought one to Amman, according to the museum’s website.

Also on display is a replica of the world’s first car, manufactured by Karl Benz, founder of Mercedes-Benz, in 1886. Others include Rolls Royces, Aston Martins and Ferraris.

The museum has drawn more than 1 million visitors, including foreigners, in the last decade. 

TEHRAN — Jordan has adopted a moderate approach in all areas of life; therefore, it will continue to treat all nations and parties equally in line with its national interests and stability, Lower House Speaker Atef Tarawneh said on Wednesday.

Addressing the ninth session of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Parliamentary Assembly in Tehran, Tarawneh noted that the Kingdom has fixed stances towards all Arab and Muslim causes, highlighting the country’s position on the Palestinian issue and the Syrian crisis.

He cited His Majesty King Abdullah’s efforts in the international arena to bring about stability and peace in the region, in addition to the comprehensive reform efforts exerted by Jordan.

Tarawneh stressed the centrality of the Palestinian issue, which can only be resolved according to the international resolutions and the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative, leading to the establishment of an independent and viable Palestinian state on the 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital.

The speaker acquainted the participants with the impact of the Syrian crisis on neighbouring countries, especially Jordan, which hosts more than 1.6 million Syrians, of whom 600,000 are refugees registered with the UNHCR.

Highlighting issues related to regional unrest, Tarawneh called for unifying counter-terrorism efforts and criminalising terrorism.

Highlighting the Kingdom’s efforts to promote interfaith dialogue that fosters the concepts of tolerance among followers of different religions, Tarawneh said terrorism that uses religion to influence people is the gravest cultural threat “to us all”.

On the sidelines of the OIC session, Tarawneh met with his Turkish counterpart Jemil Çiçek and discussed issues of mutual interest, particularly the situation in Syria.

Çiçek said Jordan is the country most affected by the Syrian refugee crisis, followed by Turkey.

“We share your opinion on the need to end the bloodshed,” he said, warning that Syria’s unity is now at stake as the conflict is on the verge of devolving into a sectarian one.

AMMAN — His Majesty King Abdullah on Wednesday received a delegation from the US National Defence University (NDU) comprising generals and admirals serving in the CAPSTONE Fellow programme.

King Abdullah reviewed with the visiting delegation the outcomes of his recent visit to America and meetings with US President Barack Obama, Congress members and US organisations, a Royal Court statement said.

Efforts exerted to achieve peace in the Middle East as well as other regional issues, especially the Syrian crisis, were also discussed, according to the statement.

Royal Court Chief Fayez Tarawneh, King’s Office Director Imad Fakhoury and US Ambassador to Jordan Stuart E. Jones attended the meeting.

With its main campus at Fort Lesley J. McNair in Washington, DC, the NDU offers joint professional military education programmes under the direction of the chairman of the US joint chiefs-of-staff, according to its website.

It seeks to be “the premier national security institution focused on advanced joint education, leader development and scholarship”.

The university provides “rigorous” military education to members of the US armed forces and “select others” in order to develop leaders that have the ability to operate and creatively think in an unpredictable and complex world, according to the website.

AMMAN — Badia residents and activists are planning to organise a march on Friday to express their rejection of the nuclear programme, activists said on Wednesday.

The march, which will be organised by the national anti-nuclear committee, will kick off from Al Husseini Mosque in downtown Amman to Al Nakheel Square in Ras Al Ain following Friday noon prayer, the committee’s spokesperson, Omar Shoshan, said.

“The march will express a unified will against and a rejection of the nuclear programme as a whole and a decision to build reactors in the Qusayr Amra area,” Shoshan said at a press conference to announce Friday’s march.

The nuclear programme will have destructive impacts on the economy, environment and society, Shoshan warned, underscoring that the negative effects of the programme will not only affect the badia, where the reactors will be constructed, but also the whole Kingdom.

“Consecutive governments have always neglected the badia in terms of providing basic health, education and employment opportunities and now they decide to build their reactors there. We will work to stop this,” he said.

The Jordan Atomic Energy Commission announced plans last year for constructing twin reactors in the Qusayr Amra region near Azraq, some 60 kilometres east of Amman, but activists and tribesmen of the area rejected the plans, warning that the project threatens one of the country’s largest underground water sources and the livelihoods of thousands of citizens.

Shoshan said that march supports the “Amra is Umayyad, not nuclear” campign, which was launched late last year. Qusayr Amra is an archaeological site that houses the former desert palace of Umayyad Caliph Walid II and is inscribed in UNESCO’s World Heritage list.

In addition to threats posed to early Islamic archaeology and the aquifers of nearby Azraq, opponents say the reactors threaten to disrupt the lives of tens of thousands who rely on the land surrounding the planned nuclear site for livestock grazing and agricultural use.

Atomic energy officials said they selected the site due to its proximity to the Samra Wastewater Treatment Plant, which is to provide the projected reactors with millions of cubic metres of water monthly for cooling, and its distance from large population centres.

Fawzi Jubour, head of the national anti-nuclear committee, said during the press conference that the nuclear programme is another “adventure and a new chapter in the country’s administrative and financial corruption”.

Jubour underscored that badia residents will march in Amman on Friday to announce “that they will no longer be obedient and tolerant”.

In October, the government announced that it had selected Russian state-owned firm Rosatom as its preferred vendor to construct two 1,000-megawatt reactors by 2021.

Officials hailed the planned reactors — set to meet 40 per cent of the country’s projected electricity demand — as an end to chronic energy woes in Jordan, which imports over 97 per cent of its energy needs at a cost of one-fifth of the gross domestic product.

AMMAN — Frustrated with behaviours of some pedestrians and motorists alike, Subhi Mohammad Subhi, a university student majoring in aviation engineering, will soon start a campaign to encourage them to better respect traffic laws.

Subhi — a second year student at the Air Service Training (AST) of Perth, Scotland who is receiving training at the AST’s partner Jordan Aircraft Maintenance Ltd. — said he had always thought of doing “something” to encourage people to respect traffic regulations.

“Pedestrians rarely use a pedestrian bridge and try to cross the street from under it,” Subhi told The Jordan Times in a recent interview.

“This is an annoying behaviour for drivers, who — if they hit someone — are always to blame, not the pedestrians who carelessly cross the street and ignore the overpass,” he added.

Subhi said he will start by distributing brochures to motorists and pedestrians highlighting the risks of not heeding traffic laws for both.

He will be able to implement the campaign after he was recently announced as one of the winners of the Youth Empowerment Windows Initiative, which is part of the Democratic Empowerment Programme “Demoqrati” launched by His Majesty King Abdullah last year. 

“I submitted my idea to the programme. They studied it, adopted it and will help me in its implementation through financial and logistic support,” Subhi said.

“It is not only pedestrians who do not respect traffic laws; many motorists sometimes do not stop when there is a speed bump to allow pedestrians to cross,” he added.

“Sometimes, drivers do not stop at zebra crossings to allow people to pass. Instead, they increase their speed, which also is annoying,” Subhi said.

The campaign, he added, is not only about distributing brochures and talking to people about the dangers of ignoring traffic laws.

It also includes posting signs near pedestrian bridges and traffic lights with slogans and pictures highlighting the risks of not abiding by traffic regulations for both motorists and pedestrians.

“Thanks to the Demoqrati programme, I will be able to help raise traffic awareness among people,” said Subhi, adding that many of his friends asked about the programme, as they have ideas to “improve the local community”.

The programme’s four youth empowerment “windows of opportunity” seek to encourage young people to join voluntary initiatives, institutionalise existing youth initiatives, support local community organisations to expand the outreach of their projects, and provide financial and technical support to larger projects to turn them into nationwide initiatives that reach the Kingdom’s governorates.

Seeking to enhance the values of democracy, enroot democratic practices in society and push the development process forward, Demoqrati is founded on development-boosting values such as the rule of the law, rejection of violence, acceptance of others, dialogue and accountability.

It seeks to engage all segments of society, especially young people, in building a conscious democratic culture, and facilitate it through democratic institutions and supportive civil society organisations, based on confidence in the country’s ability to make change and progress in its development process. 

AMMAN — Lower House Speaker Atef Tarawneh on Tuesday conveyed a verbal message from His Majesty King Abdullah to Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani.

On behalf of the King, Tarawneh expressed “best wishes for the continued progress and prosperity of Iran”, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.

The agency quoted Rouhani as commending “the brotherly relations between the countries”, adding that Iran is “determined to developing bilateral ties with Jordan and improve economic and cultural relations between the two countries”.

He acknowledged that regional conflicts in Palestine, Iraq and Syria have had an adverse impact on Jordan, and thus, regional stability is very important to bring an end to the problems facing the Kingdom in this regard.

Noting that the issue of “terrorism” in Syria should be dealt with as one of the region’s priorities, he claimed that the phenomenon is the reason behind blocking the delivery of logistics and humanitarian assistance to Syrians in conflict zones.

The Iranian president noted that what concerns everybody now is to end the bloodshed of Muslims there, adding that the future of Syria should be determined by its people and “we should accept what the Syrian people decide regarding what to do to create an appropriate climate for elections”.

This calls for paving the ground for that and for a “Syrian-Syrian” dialogue, calling on the countries of the region to assist Syria to move towards that goal.

Stressing the strong Jordanian-Iranian relations, the Parliament speaker said, in Jordan “we respect the role of Iran and we hope that such a role will contribute to solving the crisis in Syria”.

He stressed Jordan called for a peaceful solution since the beginning of the crisis and it has rejected the internal fighting between the Syrians, adding that disputes should be resolved “through dialogue rather than war”.

The speaker said Jordan has had to deal with the repercussions of the Syrian crisis as it hosts more than 1.25 million Syrians, including 600,000 registered refugees while the “terrorist groups” in Syria are no more than 20km away from the Jordanian border.

Tarawneh stressed Jordan is continuing an open-border policy to help the Syrians and is keeping a cautious eye on the border to prevent the entry of weapons and terrorist groups into the Kingdom.

Tarawneh, chairing a Jordanian parliamentary delegation, participated in the 9th summit meeting of the Islamic Inter-Parliamentary Union, which was inaugurated by the Iranian president.  

AMMAN — While discussing the higher education draft law, MPs on Tuesday engaged once again in a debate over the impact of the House-based Mubadara (initiative) group, accusing it of trying to block the bill.

Deputy Mohammad Qatatsheh, who heads the Lower House’s Education Committee, called on the government to “choose between the initiative and the House”.

The government has engaged in meetings and consultations with Mubadara over the past few months, under which the two sides issued a “policy statement” over reforms in the education and higher education sector. Qatatsheh and other MPs criticised the government’s approach to the emerging bloc, which, observers say, constitutes a new pro-modern state trend in a legislature where tribal leaders are still influential.

“It is now clear that the government wants to deal with Mubadara and isolate the rest of the Lower House, including its committees,” Qatatsheh said, adding that attempts to block the bill appeared to be led by Mubadara members behind the scene.

Qatatsheh was joined by other lawmakers in the campaign against Mubadara, which seeks to evolve into a shadow government with clear platforms.

However, veteran MP and former Lower House speaker Saad Hayel Srour, who joined the Mubadara group recently, criticised the bloc’s critics, saying: “Members of this initiative are also MPs, and they have a say.”

He added: “It is not acceptable to shift our discussion from the law to Mubadara.”

Deputy Khalil Attiyeh agreed, adding in response to Qatatsheh: “This initiative is a parliamentary effort that we should respect.”

Prior to adjourning the session, Mubadara members expressed their rejection to what they saw as attempts to censor them and bar their activities.

However, amid the commotion, Deputy Lower House Speaker Ahmad Safadi decided to adjourn the session after it again lost quorum.

This was not the first time that the bloc and its leader MP Mustafa Hamarneh have
come under fire during Lower House sessions.

The last verbal attack was last week, when Deputy Abdul Karim Dughmi criticised Mubadara’s leader Hamarneh for recent remarks during which he warned that tribes might evolve into “unarmed militias” if no proper political environment is created for political activism based on platforms.

Dughmi accused Hamarneh of humiliating tribes and when the discussion evolved into a heated argument, he charged that the Madaba deputy is a “collaborator with the Americans”.

However, Hamarneh then explained that he believes building a civil and modern state should be based on citizenship rather than any other affiliation.

Several MPs told The Jordan Times that there is a campaign targeting the initiative trying to drag it to minor battles in a bid to derail its momentum.