Jordan suspected of reverting to old censorship practices

Reporters Without Borders (Reporters sans frontières) has urged the new Jordanian government to step back from reverting to old censorship practices that it says continue despite an official end to advance censorship. "It is still too soon to judge if the recent abolition of the information ministry in Jordan will allow the Jordanian press to win real independence", said Robert Ménard, secretary-general of Reporters Without Borders. "Unfortunately the Jordanian authorities are past masters at making an effect with announcements and a new case of censorship of the weekly Al-Wehda, for the second time in two months does not bode well for any significant improvement in press freedom." A cartoon of the new Jordanian prime minister Faisal Al-Fayiz and other members of the cabinet formed on 25 October 2003 was banned even before it was published, according to Al-Wehda, the newspaper that was targeted. "The Jordanian authorities saw the cartoon at the print works", said editorial boss Mowafak Mahaddine. "They ordered us to pull the cartoon or the newspaper would not be printed. We replaced it with another one on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict." At the end of September an issue of the same weekly was banned in advance on the order of the State Security Court prosecutor who had been tipped off about its contents while the newspaper was still at the printers. It is a common occurrence for informers to be placed in the semi-governmental print works to check up on the content of publications. "Concerted praise of the new cabinet throughout the press does cast doubt on the pro-democratic rhetoric of King Abdallah II", Ménard added. "Self censorship, towing the line, suspensions and closures of newspapers, arrests of journalists and jailings for press offences have probably got a lot of life left in them in Jordan." Three journalists have been jailed in Jordan this year for press offences