For a while now, I’ve been wanting to write something about the Jordan Times, specifically it’s reporting and even more specifically its editorials, which have increasingly started to read like press releases issued by the Ministry of Interior. They sound as Orwellian as it gets. But for some reason, that took a back seat when [...]

I know it’s been a tough month for you. Security breaches have been all over the international media and things just don’t look great right now. I know in such times it’s easy for you to retreat to safer grounds where fear tactics and terrorism rhetoric is comforting, but please, can we put an end [...]

This is just a quickie post, as a lot of people have been asking my opinion about the recent court decision to include websites under the Jordanian Press & Publication Law. There’s plenty to say about the topic and I want to write an extensive post about the issue (in the making) but I would [...]

Several days after international media reports, vis a vis CIA officials, indicating Humam Balawi, a Jordanian, as being the bomber who killed seven CIA agents and his Jordanian handler, Sharif Ali, a video of him has surfaced on Al Jazeera. The video is very short, but in it, Balawi, in traditional suicide bomber fashion, sends [...]

Getty Images It has undeniably been the talk of the town here in Amman, to say nothing of the local virtual spheres; an interesting contrast to the local mainstream media that has remained relatively hush-hush about the death of Sharif Ali bin Zaid. Initial reports suggested that eight people had died in a suicide attack, [...]

Al Jazeera English recently aired its Arab Street program on Amman. It’s interesting to watch and listen to the views of average Jordanians as Al Jazeera poses various questions to them. The questions are, naturally, the usual suspects. Israel. Palestine. Israel. Palestine. Israel. Israel. Israel. Iraq. Iraq. Iraq. Oil. Water. Nuclear technology. Tourism. Honor crimes. [...]

On Thursday, Jon Stewart hosted two interesting guests on The Daily Show, Israeli-Palestinian peace activists Anna Baltzer and Dr. Mustafa Barghouti. The episode seemed to draw an angry response from a Pro-Israel crowd so I’m reposting this letter written by Baltzer in hopes that those who read it will help spread it. The content is [...]

In a recent annual report on press freedoms by the French-based rights organization, Reporters Without Borders, Jordan improved 16 spots this past year to rank 112th out of 175. In the context of the rest of the region, I would argue that these “improvement” have very little to do with any visible on-the-ground improvements in [...]