Radio Al Balad on Saturday sent a letter of apology to the Lower House for reading a comment on air deemed insulting to the Chamber of Deputies and called for allowing the station to resume broadcasting sessions, which were halted last week. In the letter, addressed to Lower House Speaker Abdul Hadi Majali, Radio Al […]

Not only has AmmanNet - now called Radio Al Balad - been banned from broadcasting the Lower House sessions after MP’s filed a lawsuit against it, but now the regulator, the Audio Visual Commission, has also filed a lawsuit against the station!

“We filed a lawsuit against Radio Al Balad almost two weeks ago, after […]

No one liked the last Lower House but this one is just acting retarded these days. AmmanNet, which is now Radio Al-Balad, has been banned from broadcasting the Lower House of Parliament sessions because apparently they’ve insulted MP’s. Apparently the “insult” came by way of a comment posted by a reader on January 29th.
According […]

The astonishing verdict: not guilty.
Jordan’s parliament has rejected legal challenges to dismiss eight MPs for alleged vote rigging. The MPs were being investigated for alleged vote buying, allowing children to vote and threatening ballot box supervisors in last November’s parliamentary election.
Under Jordan’s constitution, the lower house of parliament investigates all charges of electoral fraud against […]

In the past few days, trade and professional unions have been doing a great deal of work. First, they denounced the reprinting of the cartoons depicting Prophet Mohammad (pbuh) in a Danish newspaper, which is an act that conjures an overwhelming sense of deja vu, calling on the government to sever economic ties with Denmark […]

With the approved budget expanding by leaps and bounds this year, the deficit is on the rise. The lifting subsidies may end up helping the government save a decent amount of money (close to $1.5 billion according to officials) but then the likely question becomes: what good is all that money if it’s outmatched by […]

…and the world keeps spinning around and around and around…
Jordanians’ assessment of the level of democracy in Jordan dropped in 2007 despite the fact the country witnessed two major elections, a survey showed. According to the poll conducted by the University of Jordan’s Centre for Strategic Studies (CSS), respondents ranked the level of democracy in […]

Meanwhile, the Lower House permanent office has rejected a request from a number of deputies to furnish their offices at their own expense, saying all MPs should have the same offices to insure equality. [source]
Equality, eh?

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Here’s an interesting story: a national policy paper emerged recently, entitled “Rights to Assembly in the Jordanian Legislations”. Produced by Fayez Shakhatreh, a contracted legal expert to the National Council for Human Rights (NCHR), the 74-page report has supposedly caused some debate, bringing together representatives from the government and civil society organizations to discuss it […]

Since my blog went down for 11 days right after the elections, I never really got to voice my opinion on the topic. In fact, so much happened that without my ordinary outlet for ranting, I was left to bother family, friends and co-workers instead (my apologies to them all). But better late than never, […]

Maha, a friend of mine and frequent commenter on the Black Iris, told me a story the other day that had me in stitches. It also had me reanalyzing my mental health just at the sheer fact I would laugh at a story so morbid. Then again, Maha could narrate The Exorcist and make it […]

I use the word “debate” with extreme caution and reservation. It was more like six panelists telling everyone their life story, introducing what little platform they have, and then answering questions that have no relevance to their (potential) future position in Parliament.
Suffice to say it was quite an absurd ritual.
First of all, with […]

It’s been three weeks since I started attending the World Affairs Council meetings, and it’s safe to say I’ve grown a bit attached to the place. The first meet saw the discussion of the Annapolis summit, while the second was about domestic energy. This week was probably everyone’s favorite topic these days: the elections. So […]

Roundabouts, crossroads and traffic lights are the most common venues for posters and banners.

Traffic Sign reads: “Dead End”.
Stand-up posters can not exceed 1.5 meters in height, and 1 meter in width. Posters and/or banners must be placed 4.5 meters above the ground level, where there are pedestrians or cars passing beneath them.

“All Jordanians […]

A very interesting article in the New York Times today discusses briefly the unfolding road to the elections on the 20th. What I found interesting was something that I also found to be true: “liberals in Jordan have set aside demands for political freedom”, in light of rising Islamist groups in the region, particularly Hamas […]

Yesterday, as everyone knows, was the second anniversary of the Amman bombings. I decided to join the caravan of cars that that traveled from the Martyrs of Amman Park, to all three hotels that were targeted, and then back. Earlier in the day, Prince Ali planted an olive tree at the park to honor the […]