AMMAN -- The debate over mandatory membership in the Jordan Press Association (JPA) dominated deliberations on Sunday at a session on the new Jordanian media reform plan at the Global Forum for Media Development (GFMD) conference under way in Amman.
At yesterday's session, Deputy Prime Minister Marwan Muasher, who heads the Steering Committee of the National Agenda, announced 19 recommendations on the local media sector, including a one to scrap mandatory association membership for journalists.
JPA Vice President Nabil Ghishan, who shared the panel with Muasher and five senior journalists and media personnel at the GFMD evening session, said the association "totally disagrees with the National Agenda committee on cancelling mandatory membership... but agrees with 99 per cent of its other recommendations."
He said the JPA will organise a sit-in tomorrow in front of the Prime Ministry, where the National Agenda committee meets, to protest against the recommendation.
Members of the JPA observed a one-hour work stoppage yesterday, starting at 11:00am, in protest.
"We are not in confrontation with the JPA," Muasher emphasised, saying that scrapping mandatory membership was one of many other recommendations.
Ghishan, deputising for JPA President Tareq Momani who was suddenly taken unwell, said the association is a body that regulates practising the profession and defends the freedom of journalists. He added that journalists would lose the privileges the association provides if they were not members.
Momani and other association council members met yesterday with Lower House Speaker Abdul Hadi Majali and Senate President Zeid Rifai to convey their stand on the recommendation, which they said would lead to chaos and undermine the profession, according to Ghishan.
However, two other panellists Rana Sabbagh and Rula Hroob, said journalists should have the freedom to choose whether or not they want to become members, and if the association was strong, all those practising the profession would subsequently join.
Sabbagh, who criticised the JPA for not defending the rights of its members on occasions, said Jordanian journalists working for foreign news agencies were denied membership in the association as it was not permitted under the JPA law.
She added that scrapping mandatory membership would not lead to chaos as predicted.
Hroob, editor-in-chief of Al Anbat daily, who represented the private media sector in the session, said practising journalism should not be restricted to media and journalism graduates. She said journalism differs from professions like engineering since people in various occupations could have the capacity to become journalists. Hroob said the association was created to regulate the profession, but not by force.
Among the other National Agenda recommendations Muasher announced for the first time yesterday, was abolishing the Higher Media Council and establishing a regulatory commission for the media sector.
By Ahmad Barakat
© Jordan Times 2005
