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Letter to Prime Minister Abdel Raouf Rawabdeh
BY FACSIMILE
27 October 1999

His Excellency Abdel Raouf Rawabdeh
Prime Minister
Amman, The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan

Your Excellency:

Human Rights Watch is writing to express its concern about the recent decision of the disciplinary committee of the Jordan Press Association (JPA) to expel three prominent Jordanian journalists: Abdullah Hasanat, chief editor of the English-language daily newspaper Jordan Times, Jihad Momani, a columnist with the Arabic-language daily al-Dustour, and Sultan Hattab a columnist with the Arabic daily al-Ra'i.


Related Material

Jordan's Banned Journalists
HRW Press Release, October 29, 1999

The committee acted against the three journalists because they visited Israel in September, in violation of JPA's ban on any form of contact and "normalization" with Israel. The journalists had accepted a private invitation of the Center for Arab-Jewish Studies at Haifa University to attend a seminar about the treatment of Palestinian residents of Israel. The disturbing significance of the decision, which as of this date the JPA executive committee has not officially approved in writing, is that the expulsions prohibit the three journalists from practicing their profession because Jordan's press and publications law requires all journalists to maintain membership in one professional syndicate, the JPA.

This case brings into sharp focus the urgent need to amend the press law. The requirement of mandatory membership for journalists is unreasonable, and violates the right to freedom of association and expression, which Jordan as a state party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) is pledged to uphold. As explained below, it can be used as a tool of censorship to suppress unpopular information, ideas, and opinions.

In order to carry out their professional duties, journalists require full enjoyment of freedom of expression, including the "freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds," as set forth in article 19 of the ICCPR. The freedom to seek information may in many cases include the right to freedom of movement, enshrined in article 12 of the ICCPR. To ensure free expression in the media, journalists must be free to travel to any country to obtain information and ideas, and to exchange views and opinions. Interference with this right, as in the case of the JPA's self-imposed ban on its members'contact with Israelis, is an unacceptable infringement on free expression and a form of censorship.

Journalists also should have the freedom to join or form any professional association that they wish, but they should not be compelled under the law to join a specific organization in order to practice their profession. More importantly, journalists should never have to face the prospect of forfeiting the right to work in Jordan because they do not choose to join the JPA or because they travel to a country that the JPA disapproves of.

In April of this year, Human Rights Watch met with numerous practicing journalists in Amman who expressed strong opposition to the mandatory membership requirement in the press law and called for its cancellation. We are adding our voice to theirs. The definition of a journalist in the press law -- as a person who is registered as a member of the JPA -- should be revoked, and we encourage your government to introduce to parliament proposed legislation to this effect.

Thank you for your attention to this important matter.

Sincerely,

/s/

Hanny Megally
Executive Director
Middle East and North Africa Division
Human Rights Watch

cc: His Excellency Abdel Karim Kabariti, Chief of the Royal Court
His Excellency Ayman Majali, Minister of Information
Jordan Press Association
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