Arabian Business published its 100 Most Influential Arabs list, and only 3 Jordanians made the cut. Wadah Khanfar, who runs Al Jazeera (all of it) at only 38 years old, is ranked 8th, while Fadi Ghandour of Aramex ranks 82. Emad Hajjaj however, is a new entry on the list, and now ranks 43, with […]

Despite my own daily rounds of the online world, I unfortunately missed an important event that took place a few weeks back on March 12th, and I’m kind of disappointed in myself. But I suppose, it’s better late than never, right? Well, apparently, on March 12th, a very interesting initiative took place, as Reporters Without […]

Let me put aside the obvious shocking factor of being utterly disgusted by the event (is there a way to be shocked and yet not surprised), but there is something that interests me here and that’s the international media’s reaction. Did anyone notice that this crime took place in August of 2007 and is only […]

Ammon has been reporting about a book written by an Iraqi author, called “The Rain of God”, which seems to “insult God” and has slipped Jordanian censors and made its way onto the market. It’s kind of ironic because I’ve never seen Ammon so much in favor of censorship! What makes this more interesting, is […]

Entitled the “Sarhan Well” - with the word sarhan meaning “daydreaming” as well as the name of the oil well in the valley known as “Wadi Sarhan” - I think Emad Hajjaj’s latest caricature perfectly describes this country’s pipe dreams when it comes to oil production; a topic that has picked up some steam recently […]

To break the political monotony of the last couple of posts here are a few of my delicious pickings for the last couple of days that are more entertaining than serious.
- Recycled Wonderlands: Simply put, some of the craziest architectural creations you’ll ever see.
- Muppet President: You know how they say every president is […]

Read this, and this, in addition to this if you’ve missed it.
When HM King Abdullah said some time ago that “the sky is the limit” when it comes to press freedoms, I don’t think this is what he had in mind.
What more can I say?
Nothing.

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addthis_title […]

This issue regarding the Danish cartoons is like a monkey on the nation’s back: it just won’t go away! The redundant quality to it has rendered it even more absurd than the first time around, which by now feels like ages ago! It’s like beating a dead dog with a stick.
On the front page […]

I attended this Jordan Media Survey event the other day and I’ve been looking over the results of the survey which you can read for yourself here (PDF). While I think the polling sample was too small, there are a few unique results that I wanted to sum up in bullet points. Radio now outranks […]

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 […]

While everyone waits with bated breath the results of today’s deadly primaries in the US, here are a few del.icio.us pickings I’ve been reading these past couple of days:
- A Rose By Any Other Name: An Iranian court has ordered a man to give his wife the 124,000 roses that he promised in her dowry, […]

AMMAN (JT) - Around 21 local daily and weekly newspapers on Sunday said they decided to publish a unified statement in protest against the reprinting of a cartoon depicting the Prophet Mohammad in 17 Danish newspapers. In a statement issued yesterday, the newspapers said their response will be professional and objective and constitutes the first […]

Here is a selection of my delicious picks: a few interesting articles/links from across the Net.
- Robert Fisk recalls his first meeting with assassinated Hizballah commander, Imad Mougnieh, in 1991.
- Arab information ministers have met in Cairo to endorse an Arab League charter, which allows host countries to annul or suspend the licence of any […]

It’s a scary time to be a journalist in Jordan these days. Working in the media sector, my feeling is that semi-independent media is making an attempt of becoming more liberalized, and the state response to such efforts has not been kind. It seems we are now leaving the era of the standard verbal harassment, […]