Remember when the Bush administration decided to handle protesters simply by taking them to a designated “free speech zone” (also known as a “free speech cage”)? Well, Jordan’s Lower House of Parliament seems set on doing the same thing these days. Essentially, they’ve designated a room by the main entrance of the Parliament building for […]

Ninety-four per cent of journalists in Jordan practise self-censorship, according to a survey conducted by the Centre for Defending the Freedom of Journalists (CDFJ) to mark World Press Freedom Day.
“This year, the survey highlighted self-censorship exercised by journalists in Jordan as well as the phenomenon of bloggers in the Kingdom and the increasing role of […]

It perhaps goes without saying that the most defunct and notoriously futile arm of the entire Jordanian government apparatus, is the Lower House of Parliament; the very small government body that “the people” actually get to “vote” for. The Lower House never ceases to amaze me in its imbecility and it is a constant reminder […]

“I am proud because I was not prosecuted for corruption, or for spying, but for saying a word of truth.” - Khalid Mahadin on being cleared of charges of slandering the Lower House of Parliament.
While it’s good to hear that Mahadin is cleared of these idiotic charges levied against him by an even more idiotic […]

By now, pretty much everyone has heard the talk of the town: the latest suicide attempt in Jordan. Amman is a small town that likes to talk, especially when it comes to an event where the attempted female jumper called the media to cover it, and in the process, tied up traffic on one of […]

Yesterday, Khaled Mahadin’s trial began. For those who don’t know, Mahadin is being sued by Parliament for slander by way of an article posted on Khaberni.com, a Jordanian news site. A few protesters gathered outside Parliament yesterday morning as Mahadin was pleading not guilty. I hope he’ll win this case.

Meanwhile, in other media news, cartoonist […]

Arabian Business just published it’s annual Most Influential Arabs list for 2009 and it’s pretty good popcorn reading. Like last year, only three Jordanians made the list, including Fadi Ghandour (who went up 52 spots to be ranked 27th), Samer Majali (38th) and Emad Hajjaj (who dropped 40 spots to be ranked 83rd). While Fadi […]

Remember when HM King Abdullah said that journalists wouldn’t be jailed any more? Well they can still be sued. As many know by now, Khalid Mahadin was just sued by the Lower House of Parliament for “slander” after publishing an article on Kheberni.com entitled, “For God’s Sake, Abdullah”, where he criticized members of Parliament. To […]

17% believe the government resorts to giving financial incentives to win journalists’ support, while 7% said giving information to particular journalists is a means the government uses to obtain their support…In addition, 49% of opinion leaders in the media sector were subjected to soft containment methods, the study showed…Of the polled journalists, 43% said they […]

I saw this two-liner news report on Ammon last note as they broke it but the details were still to sketchy to post. Those details have not much improved over night, but the gist of the story is that two Jordanian journalists were stopped by an unknown body (most likely security-related) and held for several […]

Lawmakers on Wednesday observed a minute’s silence in a show of support for Iraqi television reporter Muntazer Zaidi who threw his shoes at US President George W. Bush earlier this week. The action was taken following a proposal by MP Tayseer Shdeifat, who also asked House Speaker Abdul Hadi Majali to issue a statement demanding […]

“I was sitting in the House speaker’s office waiting to meet him, when Atiyyeh came in and started to call me names, then [he] threw an ashtray and a stapler at me.” - Nidal Faraaneh, Rum Online journalist after supposedly being attacked by Jordanian Member of Parliament, Khalil Atiyyeh, in the House Speaker’s office. [source]
Apparently, […]

How fast can someone put a book together on President-elect Obama? Well, on the day after Obama won the election, The Guardian created a Flickr group to find a creative way of capturing the victory. The group, which now has over 1,600 members, quickly became a collaborative effort to send various messages to Obama and […]

It’s interesting, although not surprising, how the humanitarian crisis in Gaza is not even making a blip on the radar screens of international news outlets. But I suppose it’s not their fault really:
Leaders of the world’s biggest media organizations filed a protest with Israel’s prime minister Wednesday criticizing the government’s decision to ban journalists from […]

Even since the King held a meeting earlier this month with the chief editors of the Kingdom’s dailies, there has been some movement with regards to media reform. I have to say, I wouldn’t really call it media reform any more. Media in Jordan, at this point, is what it is. There seems to be […]

I have been reading the local papers today with some amusement. The ripple effects of the King’s meeting with media industry representatives are making headlines only a day after that meeting. It’s as if with one sweeping statement, everything has changed. Now while the King’s words are in all probability sincere, a commentator in yesterday’s […]