Jordan Journalists Protest 'Repressive' Website Law

Jordanian journalists demonstrated on Wednesday against a "repressive" government decision to block unlicensed local news websites, as experts voiced alarm over freedom of expression.

"We gathered today to tell King Abdullah II that the government's repressive decision violates the constitution," Nasser Lafi, editor of Busala, or compass, news website, told Agence France Presse.

"This move harms Jordan's reputation."

Dozens of journalists gathered with banners that read "no to the assassination of the media," and "fight the corruption instead of blocking news websites," as they demonstrated near the royal place in western Amman.

On June 3, a government source said 290 of around 400 local news websites would be blocked "for failing to obtain necessary licensing," under a controversial law approved last year.

The Press and Publication Department (PPD) has insisted that "the decision does not seek to restrict freedoms," and that "the objective is to organize the work of these websites."

In other words, journalists say, the government is attempting through the licensing process to "organize," or control who can publish news -- which is at the heart of the protests.

Demonstrator Jomaa Wahsh, editor of Al-Mirsad website, said "more protests will follow to push the government to scrap the unfair law, which violates international standards."

Taher Adwan, a prominent journalist and former information minister, said the government decision is "a failed attempt to tell the media to shut up."

"The government will not succeed. People continue to find ways to open any blocked websites," said Adwan, who quit his government job in 2011 over media laws he deemed "restrictive."

"The government does not like freedom of the press and tries to control the media, but it cannot control the Internet."

Nearly half the country's 6.8 million people are Internet users.

Last year, amendments to the press and publications law authorized the government to regulate "electronic publications," requiring them to register with the PPD and obtain a license.

They also stipulate that website chief editors must be members of the Jordan Press Association, giving the government the right to censor content and hold journalists liable for posted comments.

"Online journalists are obviously creating a headache for the government and that is why it is trying now to limit the influence of media," JPA president Tareq Momani told AFP.

"We back efforts to organize the work of news websites, but we need a law that wins the support of all involved parties and enhances the media."

PPD chief Fayez Shawabkeh said around 150 news websites are expected to obtain licenses by Thursday.

"Many of them have changed their registration from news websites to social or cultural websites, which means that the press law does not apply to them," he said.

Nidal Mansur, president of the Center for Defending Freedom of Journalists, said licensing of these websites does not organize the media.

"Jordan issued seven press laws since 1993 and all of them failed to organize the profession," he told AFP.

"Implementing the law will impose further restriction on the media and violate international treaties approved by Jordan."

The government decision "brings Jordan back to the era of martial laws" before the late 1980s, said Khaled Majali, editor of allofjo.net.

"The decision is targeting certain news websites. The government thinks that these websites are crossing red lines," he told AFP.

"At the same time, the government wants to bully licensed websites, blogs and others that deal with local news."

The decision drew renewed criticism of Jordan from international human rights watchdogs, as well as the Muslim Brotherhood, Jordan's main opposition party.

Human Rights Watch has called on the government to scrap the legislation "that allows it to encroach on online media freedom."

"The attempts to regulate online speech violate Jordan's constitutional free expression guarantees," it said.