Journalists Sentenced to Jail
A number of journalists have been sentenced to three months in prison for charges related to “insulting the judiciary system and commenting on its rulings”. The motion was filed by the Higher Judiciary Council – the head of judiciary authority in the country.
So it's against the law for the press to debate court rulings. But I'm a bit confused as to what this exactly entails. Don’t we criticize reduced sentences in so-called honor crimes all the time? Is that against the law?
Of course, we all want to be living in a country where no one is above the law, but that doesn’t mean the law is perfect the way it is and cannot be scrutinized. Commenting on the law or criticizing it, and abiding by it are not mutually exclusive.
According to the Jordan Times:
It’s not quite clear to me what happened. If I may rephrase what is written above… the newspapers were sued because they ran a news item about a citizen who contested a court ruling. It’s interesting that Al-Ghad does not mention anything about the details of the case, and Addustour and Al-Arab Al-Yawm have nothing about the whole thing, for obvious (!!) reasons (they were the two papers involved).
Al-Ghad also reported that columnist Abdul-Hadi Raji al-Majali has been sentenced to three months in prison for defamation in an article he had posted and circulated on the internet. The motion was filed by the previous head of the Jordan Media Center – another government entity. The report says this is the first time in Jordan that someone is sentenced to jail because of an article published online.
Speaking of the internet, today will be the first hearing in the court case against AmmanNet. It will be interesting to see how that unfolds, because this time it’s about a reader’s comment online. AmmanNet has a regular program on the air on which comments from readers are read to reflect the pulse of the street on certain issues. One of the comments read by the presenter included an insult against the Parliament. MPs complained to the Audio Visual Commission, who in turn verified the archive and found that the comment had been read during the radio show, and so they proceeded to file a motion. Now the question is, if the comment stayed online and was not repeated on the airwaves, would it have been ok? Or would it still be a violation of the law? To what extent can the internet be regulated and controlled? And what’s the code that should be applied to it? The Penal Code?
Questions that cannot be ignored for long. But can we trust our Parliament to find the answers?
So it's against the law for the press to debate court rulings. But I'm a bit confused as to what this exactly entails. Don’t we criticize reduced sentences in so-called honor crimes all the time? Is that against the law?
Of course, we all want to be living in a country where no one is above the law, but that doesn’t mean the law is perfect the way it is and cannot be scrutinized. Commenting on the law or criticizing it, and abiding by it are not mutually exclusive.
According to the Jordan Times:
In 2006, the two papers carried a news item about a citizen who filed a motion with the Higher Judicial Council against the judges of the Higher Court of Justice, who had upheld a decision by the Civil Status and Passport Department depriving the plaintiff from his citizenship. The two papers were sued accordingly.
It’s not quite clear to me what happened. If I may rephrase what is written above… the newspapers were sued because they ran a news item about a citizen who contested a court ruling. It’s interesting that Al-Ghad does not mention anything about the details of the case, and Addustour and Al-Arab Al-Yawm have nothing about the whole thing, for obvious (!!) reasons (they were the two papers involved).
Al-Ghad also reported that columnist Abdul-Hadi Raji al-Majali has been sentenced to three months in prison for defamation in an article he had posted and circulated on the internet. The motion was filed by the previous head of the Jordan Media Center – another government entity. The report says this is the first time in Jordan that someone is sentenced to jail because of an article published online.
Speaking of the internet, today will be the first hearing in the court case against AmmanNet. It will be interesting to see how that unfolds, because this time it’s about a reader’s comment online. AmmanNet has a regular program on the air on which comments from readers are read to reflect the pulse of the street on certain issues. One of the comments read by the presenter included an insult against the Parliament. MPs complained to the Audio Visual Commission, who in turn verified the archive and found that the comment had been read during the radio show, and so they proceeded to file a motion. Now the question is, if the comment stayed online and was not repeated on the airwaves, would it have been ok? Or would it still be a violation of the law? To what extent can the internet be regulated and controlled? And what’s the code that should be applied to it? The Penal Code?
Questions that cannot be ignored for long. But can we trust our Parliament to find the answers?
posted by Lina at
10:13
