His Majesty King Hussien ibn Talal
The Royal Palace
Amman
Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan

Vienna, 29 September 1997

Your Majesty,

The International Press Institute (IPI), the global network of editors and media executives from newspapers, magazines, broadcasting organisations and news agencies in over 100 countries, strongly protests the suspension of 12 Jordanian weekly newspapers.

We are informed that on 24 and 25 September, the Ministry of Information ordered a dozen weeklies to suspend publication because they had reportedly failed to comply with Article 24 of the recently amended Press and Publications Laws, under which weekly newspapers are required to increase their capital from 15,000 to 300,000 Jordanian dinars (US$ = 0.708 JD).

The 12 weeklies – al-Majd, al-Mithaq, al-Hadath, al-Bilad, Sawt al-Maraa, al-Sayad, Hawadeth al-Sa’a, al-Hadif, Tareeq al-Mustaqbal, al-Umma, and al-Urdun – were given three months to restructure their finances, after which time they face permanent closure if they have not met the financial requirements of the law.

Already in June, IPI expressed its concern about the threat to press freedom in Jordan posed by amendments to the 1993 Press and Publications Law. The amendments, which were ratified by royal decree in May without parliamentary debate, give the state broad powers to fine, suspend, or permanently close newspapers found to be in violation of the new law’s provisions.

Amongst other things, the revised law forbids journalists from writing about Jordan’s armed forces and security services and retains a ban on anything which offends the king and royal family, contains contempt of religion, damages national unity, encourages crime, undermines confidence in the Jordanian dinar or offends public morals. The law also imposes arbitrary and discriminatory financial obligations on publications.

IPI believes that the new amendments violate the right to freedom of opinion and expression as guaranteed by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and are aimed more at silencing the independent and critical voice of Jordan’s weekly newspapers than at protecting national interests. We therefore urge Your Majesty to immediately reverse the suspension of the weekly newspapers and to revoke the amendments to the Press and Publications Law.

We thank you for your attention.

Yours sincerely,

Johann P. Fritz
Director