The Kingdom's position fell from 122 out of 169 countries last year, to 128 out of 173 nations in 2008, while in 2006, the index ranked Jordan 109 out of 186 countries.

It is not economic prosperity but peace that guarantees press freedom.

"Stability and security govern even more press freedom than economic prosperity," said the RWB, whose annual index measures the state of press freedom in the world and reflects the degree of freedom that journalists and news organisations enjoy in each country, in addition to the efforts made by the authorities to respect and ensure respect for this freedom.

Although the 2008 report commended the Kingdom's opening-up in political life, it alleged that some control over the media is still evident, adding that most parliaments in the region have very little power and no reforms will be made as long as authorities want to maintion control over the media.

Laws governing local media performance guarantee a higher level of press freedom, according to Al Arab Al Yawm Editor in Chief Taher Adwan, who added that local authorities do not act aggressively against media personnel.

He acknowledged, however, that a press freedom problem exists in public media entities.

"The decline of press freedom is more obvious in public media outlets than it is in private media institutions. Jordan Television, for example, used to have a higher ceiling of freedom during the 1990s than it has nowadays," Adwan told The Jordan Times yesterday, pointing out that any decline in press freedom is not necessarily due to government interference in the media.

"Flattery is still the best way to keep one's job and freedom," the report said, a statement echoed by Adwan, who noted that "sometimes it is the administrations of media outlets or their owners who prefer to flatter the authorities in pursuit of their own interests".

Adwan noted that although some journalists and media institutions are subject to individual pressures, this has been overcome by the determination to achieve press freedom, despite the fact that some pressures against journalists succeeded in limiting their output.

He stressed that without proper legislation that guarantees a wider span of press freedom, "everything we have achieved so far in the media business will remain worthless".

Despite several attempts by The Jordan Times, government officials could not be reached to comment on the report.

The index, which covers the 12 months up to September 1, 2008, does not look at human rights violations in general, only those related to press freedom, according to the RWB website.

To compile this index, RWB prepared a questionnaire with 49 criteria that covered every kind of violation directly affecting journalists, such as murder, imprisonment, physical attacks and threats; and media outlets, like censorship, confiscation of newspaper issues, searches and harassment.

The index also measures the level of self-censorship in each country and the ability of the media to investigate and criticise.

Financial pressure, which is increasingly common, is also assessed and incorporated into the final score.

"Journalists are among the first witnesses, and also the first victims, of the instability that plagues the Middle East. The political and religious divisions in Lebanon, the spectre of civil war in Iraq and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict have deep repercussions on media workers, beyond national borders," the report said.

Iraq, Syria and Libya were ranked 158,159,160 respectively in the index, while Saudi Arabia was 116, Palestine 163 and Iran 166.

Moreover, the index ranked Israel at 46 within the country and 149 outside Israeli lands, while the US ranked 40 and 119 inside and outside its territories.

By Hani Hazaimeh

© Jordan Times 2008

 

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