82 press freedom violations recorded in first half of 2017 — CDFJ

AMMAN – The number of violations against press freedoms in Jordan reached 82 during the first half of the year, according to a local media watchdog.

The Centre for Defending Freedom of Journalists (CDFJ) documented 82 infringements in the first six months of the year, of which 41 were against media personnel and three against media outlets. 

The violations were committed in 16 cases, 14 of which were individual incidents and two collective ones. 

“The breaches included ban from publishing, blocking websites, prior censorships, physical attacks, threats, arbitrary arrest and mistreatment, among others,” said CDFJ President Nidal Mansour. 

According to the centre’s monthly media freedom status report, which was published on Thursday, banning of media coverage constituted 35.4 per cent of the violations in the first half of the year, followed by ban in publications with 18.3 per cent, harassment, 9.7 per cent and prior censorship, 18.3 per cent. 

The report also showed that the vast majority of violations were committed against media outlets.

Meanwhile, the CDFJ highlighted that the recent tension in the relationship between Gulf countries and Qatar had a major toll on the media freedoms in the Kingdom, resulting in 11 related-violations in June. 

“The main breach was in the government’s decision to close down Al Jazeera’s offices in Jordan, to withdraw its licence and to ban the publishing of a number of articles related to the relationship between the Gulf and Qatar,” the CDFJ said, as quoted in its report e-mailed to The Jordan Times.

In an earlier statement, the centre condemned the decision to revoke the licence of Al Jazeera channel in Jordan, describing the decision as “unjustified” and “unclear”, as it did not specify any violation committed by the channel. 

Deeming the move as a form of “limiting the freedom of media outlets”, the CDFJ stressed that “intertwining media outlets with political clashes is utterly rejected”.