The people who killed a night club guard in Amman were arrested. This was the headline of a news article on Amman Net's website (Radio Al-Balad), and - terrible as this sounds - I smiled when I read it; there were no names there. We in Jordan have gotten so used to reading this kind of news article without knowing the name of the victim, the attacker, and those involved in the incident. There was a point in my childhood when I wondered why they always use initials (al-mad3u 3ein Lam... or something), but then I probably stopped noticing - at least until the other day in class.
We were doing a simple deadline news writing drill, and the professor was giving us all the facts of a shooting so we can write the story. I found it weird that we HAD TO write the names of the victims and the shooter. For a second there I thought it must be a violation of some law or against some journalistic ground rule... but then I realized that the reason we don't do it in Jordan is probably because of tribal retaliation or something of that sort.
It's fascinating how the tribal structure of society affects so many aspects of life and the way things are done. Well... it's both fascinating and disturbing, when you look at the tribal system of justice and how it is allowed to come into play in cases related to murder, honor, and - this one will be difficult to translate - face slicing (taqtee3 al wajh).
I'm no legal expert, but I was always curious to find out more about how local governors in Jordan work closely with tribal leaders to resolve problems, and how it really is not just up to the Police and the judiciary system.
But here's another question: do you think it's important for readers and recipients of the news to know the names of people involved in assaults and killings?
We were doing a simple deadline news writing drill, and the professor was giving us all the facts of a shooting so we can write the story. I found it weird that we HAD TO write the names of the victims and the shooter. For a second there I thought it must be a violation of some law or against some journalistic ground rule... but then I realized that the reason we don't do it in Jordan is probably because of tribal retaliation or something of that sort.
It's fascinating how the tribal structure of society affects so many aspects of life and the way things are done. Well... it's both fascinating and disturbing, when you look at the tribal system of justice and how it is allowed to come into play in cases related to murder, honor, and - this one will be difficult to translate - face slicing (taqtee3 al wajh).
I'm no legal expert, but I was always curious to find out more about how local governors in Jordan work closely with tribal leaders to resolve problems, and how it really is not just up to the Police and the judiciary system.
But here's another question: do you think it's important for readers and recipients of the news to know the names of people involved in assaults and killings?
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