Jordan Times
Tuesday, May 31, 2005
'Gov't is fully
committed to ensuring freedom of expression'
By Alia Shukri Hamzeh
AMMAN — The government is fully committed to ensuring freedom of expression and plans to look into any complaint of violations or restrictions on press freedoms and access to information, an official said Monday.
The official, who preferred not to be named, told
The Jordan Times that the government of Prime Minister Adnan Badran was keen on
preserving press freedoms and ensuring greater openness and transparency. The
remarks were made in reaction to a memo issued by a local human rights
organisation on Monday claiming that numerous violations to press freedoms were
committed by the authorities since the 26-member Badran Cabinet was formed on
April 7.
In his letter of designation to the government, His Majesty King Abdullah urged
Badran to speed up economic, political, judicial and media reforms. The King
called for transparency and accountability saying civil society should be
committed to participation and guided by the same objectives.
The official, however, told The Jordan Times the government had not received the
memo, adding that any complaints lodged on human rights violations would be
investigated.
In its letter addressed to the prime minister, the Jordan Society for Human
Rights (JOSHR) expressed deep concern over the way the new government handled
the press and cited 14 instances of human rights violations over the past 52
days.
It said there should be full and not partial freedom of expression and that the
public was entitled to know the truth. The letter called on the government to
put an end to prior censorship or what it claimed as the role of the “security
apparatus and its interference in press material as well as access to
information,” saying it was unconstitutional.
The memo listed numerous violations to freedom of expression in the past weeks
including an incident on April 10 when Al Wihda weekly newspaper was subjected
to “prior censorship” and was not allowed to print until after an article by one
of its writers was removed. It said Al Majd weekly was also temporarily banned
from printing on May 8 until remarks by a member of Parliament were scrapped.
It also claimed that an April edition of a magazine called “Muslim Palestine”
was banned from entering the country for what the JOSHR believed was a CD
included within the publication featuring pictures of leading Hamas figures
Sheikh Ahmad Yassin and Abdul Aziz Rantisi. It also said several books were
banned from entering the country and that a human rights activist was summoned
by Amman Governor Abdul Karim Malahme for openly criticising the General
Assembly Law.
The JOSHR also cited an incident when a one-day gathering of political activists
was rescheduled even though its organisers had obtained permission to hold it in
an Amman hotel. “The national gathering to counter economic and political
dominance,” to discuss globalisation and protest against its threats, was meant
to coincide with the World Economic Forum (WEF) that was held at the Dead Sea
between May 20-22. The gathering was allowed to reconvene after WEF concluded.
The letter said the official drive for unlimited economic liberalism and
openness should be coupled with political progressiveness and press freedoms. It
was also addressed to the Higher Media Council, the Jordan Press Association and
the Lower House Public Freedoms Committee.