The executive board of the International Press Institute (IPI) this week delivered formal letters to Jordan’s king and prime minister expressing concern over the Jordanian government’s closure of nearly 300 news websites earlier this week.
The move, characterised in the letters as a “step backward for press freedom and democracy” in Jordan, came less than three weeks after IPI held its annual World Congress and General Assembly in Amman, Jordan’s capital. Prime Minister Dr. Abdullah Ensour had expressed his country’s commitment to media freedom during remarks delivered at the Congress’s opening ceremony, and an IPI and Center for Defending Freedom of Journalists delegation, led by IPI Executive Director Alison Bethel McKenzie, had met privately with King Abdullah II following the Congress’s conclusion.
The IPI board urged the two leaders to lift the suspensions, and called for the creation of a “multistakeholder task-force including representatives of various sectors of the news media industry, to assist in decisions related to media regulations.” Such a task force would allow for a “broader and more diversified input,” the board added.
An IPI delegation will return to Amman from 18 to 20 June, 2013 to discuss concerns about the closure of the news websites with representatives of the media and other public and private institutions. The letters request meetings with the king and Prime Minister Abdullah Ensour in order to listen to their opinion on the matter “as well as how Jordan plans to address questions that the move has raised.”
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