Jordan Times
Saturday, April 3, 1999
Rights group appeals to King to 'use influence' in press law changes
By Amy Henderson
AMMAN — An international press freedoms group has asked His Majesty King Abdullah to “use his influence” in having a new press law enacted that protects journalists freedoms and Jordanians' right to be freely informed.
In a letter addressed to the King, the Paris-based Reporters Sans Frontiers said that the groups “welcomed the announcement by your government that the press law enacted last September is to be reviewed.”
“You are fully aware that the new press law is not satisfactory in terms of freedom of expression, as has been pointed out by most international human rights organisations,” wrote RSF Secretary General Robert Menard. “This law, which is too restrictive, should be repealed. Under its provisions, a court may close down any newspaper under investigation for violations of the press law until a final verdict in the case is reached. Democratic debate was jeopardised by such a stringent law.”
The group asked King Abdullah to “use his influence to have a new law enacted...in compliance with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights ratified by Jordan.”
International human rights organisations have been lobbying the government since 1997, supporting local journalists in their effort to stave off new legislation on the press. Their finally efforts failed last summer when the two Houses of Parliament endorsed the 1998 Press and Publications Law that replaced the 1993 law, which was recognised as the most liberal legilsation on the press in the country's history.
Last month, Human Rights Watch also appealed to Minister of Information Nasser Lawzi to urge the government to uphold Jordan's treaty obligations under the ICCPR.
The government of Prime Minister Abdur-Raouf S. Rawabdeh has shown more willingness than the previous one to reopen the press law file. The premier has already hosted one meeting with the Jordan Press Association. The premier instructed the JPA to suggest amendments and said that all concerned parties, including the judiciary, should coordinate a comprehensive study of the necessary changes. That meeting was followed by others with Chief of the Royal Court Abdul Karim Kabariti and then King Abdullah.
Director of the Press and Publications Iyad Qattan told the Jordan Times that the legal department of the PPD last week submitted to Rawabdeh a list of recommended changes to the controversial law.
“The changes are mostly concentrated on the long list of prohibitions, which has been, in our recommendations, reduced to one half or one third of the prohibitions that exist,” he said. “It also does not recommend any new prohibitions.”
Qattan said that the legal team also suggested that Article 50, which allows the Court of First Instance to order closed any newspaper under investigation for violations of the law. The article is the first to give an branch of government the right to close a newspaper. The director also said that the PPD recommended that most of the crushing fines dictated in the law be abolished. Instead, he said, the recommendations suggest that the courts, particularly when dealing with slander and libel cases, refer to the penal code. The penal code has specific articles on both.
However, many journalists in the past complained that authorities have exploited the penal code in order to legally arrest and detain journalists — provisions for which have not been included in previous press laws.
“There is a misconception that the penal code grants the right of arrest,” said Qattan. “Arrest is the prerogative of the attorney general and no one else.”
Other changes include closing `procedural loopholes” that were discovered in implementing the new law, Qattan said.