Oprah goes to Denmark – Watch this

Followers of this blog will know that my country have had its share of bad press coverage. So now to something totally different.

Oprah Winfrey recently visited Copenhagen in Chicago’s unsuccessful bid for the Olympics 2016. During her stay she shot a sequence about danes and the way they live for her show. It is a quite rosy story but it also give some insights to some of the things that Danes value in their life.

If you’re into Oprah this is something for you.

I think I am going to have a look at how they live in Dubai – the contrast must be remarkable

Freedom of Press

Reporters Without Borders have made their 2009 index of press freedom public. 

Jordan is 112th on the list – an improvement from last year. Reading the Methodology paper RSF mentions that the Index ”measure the level of self-censorship in each country and the ability of the media to investigate and criticise” which is probably what puts Jordan in the lower half.

On top of the list you find a group of Nordic countries (Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Finland – and Ireland) – all at an equal high score of zero points meaning full freedom of Press.

The first 15 countries are all small and highly developed countries and no one more than roughly double the size of Jordan in population. It seems that size does matter…and there is room for Jordan in the club.

Press boycott of Parliament

One of the phenomena in Jordan that have been puzzling me since I arrived here almost two years ago is the widespread use of boycotting as a political tool. While a boycott might be a legitimate instrument, the risk of a boycott backfiring is much higher than its chance of success.

Take the latest boycott example of (most of) the Jordanian Press boycotting the Parliament. It is really strange.

The Parliament was expected to pass a law amendment that would reduce/abolish a tax on newspaper ads. But the amendment was rejected by a majority – so it didn’t pass. One argument from the majority was that the government hadn’t respected the Constitution in the first place. Another argument, this time from the Press, was, that the parliamentarians were unhappy about the Press reporting on a  unfavourable poll about Parliament performance and that MP’s thus took revenge by rejecting a law favourable to the Press.

All mainstream newspapers (apart from Jordan Times) were apparently offended by some harsh remarks (not identifiable) from a parliamentarian about the Press. That triggered the standard response: boycott unless an apology is issued.

And this is where I don’t get it. The Press decided almost unanimously to boycott the whole parliament. It simply goes against the idea of professional reporting. What use is a boycott to the press when it needs to able to report on all sorts of political developments? Of course the editors can fight their political fight in the editorials, but why should the public be held hostage and not be told about what happens in such an important institution as a Parliament. And this has nothing to do with whether the Parliament is performing or not. Let the readers decide based on the news reports. Luckily this has so far ended with the newspapers giving up their boycott – without receiving any kind of apology – but I expect this is just another round in an ongoing battle between the first and fourth political power.

Next round has begun with the idea in the Parliament administration to regulate who among the journalists will have physical access to the Parliament….

You can read the developments yourself here, here, here and here.

Global Peace Index – DK second most peaceful country

The annual GPI index “Vision of Humanity” was published on the 160th constitution day of Denmark (yesterday that was). DK got a nice gift on the occasion. Once again DK is the second most peaceful (and stable) country in the world. Only NZ is a notch ahead again.

Have a look at the figures and methodology at the GPI site for more info. And try also to make a comparison between two countries – like for instance Denmark and Jordan (ranking 64th). It is clear where the big and decisive differences are. Political instability, likelihood of violent demonstrations and military expenditure.

Looking a bit more closely you will see the very large difference in the driving political factors of democracy and transparency. Very low Jordanian scores on electoral process, functioning of government, political participation, civil liberties and corruption. These political factors are among the most important drivers of peacefulness and stability.

The Ombudsman and journalism in Jordan

The other day Al Ghad ran a story  (for English read this part) about the Jordanian Ombudsman institution and my country’s involvement in its establishment. Basically, the journalist had found an anonymous source claiming that Denmark was supposed to fund the institution for the next three years but because of disagreement about the structure of the ombudsman we had withdrawn from the commitment and Jordan had lost “millions”.

To my knowledge the paper had not tried to get a comment from the Embassy or me – which I understand since that would have deprived them this front-page. Like everyone else I am frustrated by the widespread self censorship but a bit more self-criticism and professionalism wouldn’t be bad at all.

Anyway, another Jordanian daily called me the same morning and asked me to comment on the story, which I did as follows (questions omitted).

“The article is apparently based on some misunderstandings that could have been clarified if the newspaper had asked the Danish embassy for comments before printing the story. Denmark has been supporting the establishment of the Jordanian ombudsman institution since 2004 and it has always been the intention to end financial support with the formal establishment of the institution. Originally it was foreseen to end the financial support in 2007 but the grants were extended until end 2008 when the institution was established. The ombudsman institution is one among many other projects that we support in Jordan through the Danish-Jordanian Partnership Program.”

“Denmark has been supporting the technical unit for the establishment of the ombudsman and a number of seminars and visits to other ombudsman institutions in preparation of the Jordanian law and technical regulations establishing the institution. There has been neither pledge nor intention on the Danish side to fund an up and running working institution. Such an important national institution needs to draw its main funding from the national budget voted by parliament and not from foreign countries. An ombudsman dependent on funds outside the national budget could raise questions as regards the independence of the institution which would be damaging to its credibility. To my knowledge the Jordanian ombudsman institution is today funded from the national budget for the financial year 2009 – as it should be.”

“No […Denmark is not obliged to financially support the ombudsman…], not after this grant expired end last year. What we hope is that the Jordanian ombudsman – when he once again has been appointed – seeks partners among other European ombudsman institutions including the Danish ombudsman for technical cooperation and exchange of best practices. We will try to help facilitate such exchanges between different ombudsman institutions and their Jordanian counterpart.”

“The ombudsman setup that was chosen in Jordan is not in all aspects similar to the Danish counterpart. One reason for this is the difference in our constitutions. Our ombudsman is attached to the parliament only, where in Jordan he is primarily attached to the executive – the government. It is not an unknown model in some countries but it might raise questions as to his independence of the executive branch. None the less it is important that the new ombudsman quickly seeks to establish relations to the International Ombudsman Institution in Vienna in order to be internationally acknowledged as an ombudsman institution. But what is also very important is to understand that any ombudsman institution has to take into account the local and national context in which he functions. That is why Denmark never has sought to impose a specific model on Jordan.”

“Since 2004 we have been supporting the Jordanian ombudsman project with a total amount of around 1 million USD.”

Ad Dustour and Al Rai have run stories about the ombudsman today – both touching on this issue.

Update 7.5.09: Minister of State for Legal Affairs (and former ombudsman) Salem Khazaleh corrects Al Ghad on Petra News Agency. And a long story on Ammonnews.net with contradicting statements. I tried to post a comment but I don’t think it was accepted.