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In May 1997, the council of ministers amended various articles of the 1993 press and publications law and King Hussein endorsed the new law by royal decree. The revisions of the law went into immediate effect on May 15, 1997. Because Jordan's two-chamber National Assembly was not in session at the time, the council of ministers used the authority granted to it in the constitution to promulgate the amendments as "provisional" law, fully in force but subject to approval or amendment by parliament once it reconvenes after the parliamentary elections scheduled for November 1997.(1)
Content Bans
Article 40 of the 1993 press and publications law imposed a regime of censorship on ten wide-ranging subjects - some of them extremely broadly worded - that applied to all forms of written and pictorial publication. The subjects included the king and the royal family, news about the armed forces or security agencies, proceedings of the closed sessions of parliament, and articles or information personally insulting to heads of state of Arab, Islamic or "friendly states."(2) The amendments to the press law maintained and expanded the content bans, imposing staggering restrictions on all forms of published information, including news, analyses, opinions, reports, drawings, and photographs. Article 40(a) of the amended press law explicitly bans publication of any material that:
After the amendments became law, Prime Minister Abd al-Salam al-Majali noted in an interview that the aim of the government was to set forth "taboo" subjects and to punish violators.(4) The Jordan Press Association termed the content bans "ambiguous." Indeed, the broadly formulated language of the content restrictions can be interpreted by authorities to rule out the publication of virtually any critical news, information and analysis related to the conduct of public affairs by King Hussein, government ministers and ministries, and the internal security forces. In addition, news and other information related to foreign affairs is also affected by the ban on "abusive remarks" about heads of state and material that "sours" Jordan';s bilateral relations. Similarly, news and commentary about religion, social relations and social affairs in Jordan could be sharply circumscribed by the broadly worded language which bans material deemed to be harmful to national unity, disparaging of religion, detrimental to the public interest, and promoting social "disharmony" or "perversion." The vague language used in the content bans is open to arbitrary interpretation by authorities in order to impose substantial fines on journalists and editors under the law (see below).
The chilling effect of the content bans is obvious. As one Jordanian human rights activist told Human Rights Watch: "Any journalist who wants to write now will be afraid of writing."(5) Former Minister of Information Mahmoud al-Sharif concurred: "This will serve as a permanent threat to journalists in carrying out their duties. They are now terrorized by this new law."(6) The English-language daily Jordan Times said that the amendments "make a mockery of the concept of free expression," and registered its opposition in an editorial:
Amending the law, especially in the way it was done, has been tantamount to blaming the press for problems that our economy faces, for divisions in the Arab world and here at home, and for the faltering Arab-Israeli peace process. Some, maybe even most tabloids, may have violated "ethical standards," insulted public figures, or simply broke the law. But does that mean that all newspapers, journalists, and freedoms have to be punished and curtailed, through the force of a Draconian law?....Freedom of expression, the government must realize, is not only a coordinate of democracy. It is a prerequisite for it. In the absence of a free press nobody will believe that there are going to be free elections, clean water, and true accountability by the government.(7)
Last, in a particularly disturbing development, the amended law imposes prior censorship on news and other information related to Jordanian security or military forces, stating that publication of such material is banned unless it has been vetted and approved "by the appropriate authority or the government';s official spokesman."
(1) The National Assembly is comprised of the Senate, and an elected eighty-member House of Representatives, also known as the Chamber of Deputies. Article 94 of Jordan';s constitution states: "In cases where the National Assembly is not sitting or is dissolved, the Council of Ministers has, with the approval of the King, the power to issue provisional laws covering matters which require necessary measures which admit of no delay or which necessitate expenditures incapable of postponement. Such provisional laws, which shall not be contrary to the provisions of the Constitution, shall have the force of law, provided that they are placed before the Assembly at the beginning of its next session, and the Assembly may approve or amend such laws. In the event of the rejection of such provisional laws, the Council of Ministers shall, with the approval of the King, immediately declare their nullity, and from the date of such declaration these provisional laws shall cease to have force provided that such nullity shall not affect any contracts or acquired rights." Article 34 of the constitution grants the king the power to convene and adjourn the National Assembly, and even to dissolve both the Senate and the House of Representatives.
(2) Sawt al-Sha'b (Amman), March 15, 1993, citing the text of the law as approved by both houses of parliament, as reported in Foreign Broadcast Information Service [hereinafter FBIS], March 19, 1993, pp. 37-38.
(3) As of June3, 1997, the Jordanian Embassy in Washington, D.C., said it was unable to provide Human Rights Watch with an official copy of the amendments in the original Arabic. The provisions of the law cited above were compiled from material published in Al-Ra'i (Amman), May 18, 1997, citing the text of the amended press law (as reported by BBC Monitoring Summary of the World Broadcasts, BBC Monitoring Service: Middle East, May 23, 1997), and in The Star (Amman), May22, 1997, also citing specific amendments.
(4) "We..dealt with the taboos, which we believe the law is clear about, and we laid down the appropriate penalties against those who trespass on these taboos," the prime minister said Al-Arab al-Yawn (Amman), May 24, 1997, as reported by BBC Monitoring Summary of World Broadcasts, BC Monitoring Service: Middle East, May 27, 1997.
(5) Human Rights Watch telephone interview, Amman, May 26, 1997. Name withheld by Human Rights Watch.
(6) Raed al-Abed, "Journalists United in Their Rejection of New Press Law,"The Star, May 22, 1997.
(7) Jordan Times (Amman), May 21, 1997, as reported in FBIS-NES-97-141, May 21, 1997.
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