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.

What happened in Jordan?

during the last two months? Not much according to Jordan Times and Petra which are the two main stream media I have had the opportunity to follow on-and-off from Denmark. Well, don’t you say “no news is good news”?

What also struck me in the last couple of weeks was the lack of blogging from the Jordanian bloggers I usually follow. Maybe they have gone “tweeting” as another observer stated recently. I certainly do not hope so – 140 characters might be good for breaking news, slogans or personal image building but not for more in-depth analysis. But now it seems that most are back in force. Black Iris is of course leading but other good ones have taken of their summer hat and started blogging again. I guess that bloggers also need to take some time off once in a while.

One thing I did notice was that king Abdullah – like last summer – felt the need to speak to the nation. I must say that you really have to have a close understanding of the intricacies of Jordanian politics and societal structure to understand what that was all about! No many analytical comments or surprising reactions in the media on that one – and even Jordanian blogs a bit absent. Wonder what happened to journalism – or political culture

Ohh- and I should send a RAMADAN KARIM to everyone. It is hot and long days in Jordan – but did you know that Muslims fast for as long as 21 hours in Denmark during summer – and for only 6 hours during winter.

Courtesy of Sawsan at the embassy the following is an uofficial translation of an article from Al Arab Al Yawn yesterday:

Al-Arab Al-Yawm newspaper
30.08.2009

Muslims in Denmark fast for 16 hours
By: Osama Al-Habahbah 

Copenhagen (Petra) – Muslims in Denmark whose number is not more than 150 thousands live in different circumstances than the other countries in the world during the holy month of Ramadan, as they fast for 21 hours a day in the summer while in the winter their fasting time does not exceed 6 hours.  This year, it reaches 16 hours.
The holy month of Ramadan gives them a push of faith and a spiritual encouragement as it is considered as an educational school, which returns to Muslims their faith and spiritual brilliance.  It is a clear call to maintain the threatened Islamic identity, which Muslim families seek to preserve especially for the new generations born in Denmark.

Muslim families in Denmark avail themselves of this opportunity to take advantage of the atmosphere of faith during the holy month of Ramadan to make up some deficiencies and shortcomings that affected family members due to the Danish environment around them.  They also share the Islamic unity with fellow Muslims in the world.
The Danish Imam, Abdul Wahid Petersen, stated to the reporter of the Jordanian news agency (Petra) in Copenhagen that Ramadan is a religious event through which Muslims worship God and perform a lot of prayers, calling on all Muslims to show tolerance and love the man on the earth.  

Moroccan national, Abdel Aziz Musdad, said that some female worshippers prepare collective breakfast meals on Saturdays and Sundays aiming at meeting with other Muslim families and eating together.

He added that Muslims turn the weekend evenings into Ramadan evenings similar to those take place in Arab cities, which often occur on Saturdays and Sundays – the weekend in Denmark- as it is difficult to go about it on Fridays being working days in Denmark. He stressed that Muslims in this country try to make use of any religious event such as Ramadan to observe their religious rituals and consolidate the social ties among them.

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.