Dr. Muhammad Habashneh declared his resignation from the Jordanian TV station "Roya" after he was banned from hosting Leith Shbeilat on his program "Pulse of the Country" (Nabd al-Balad) on Sunday.

Habashneh justified his resignation by exposing the channel for intervening and preventing Shbeilat from appearing on the program after the interview was scheduled.

The channel announced in a news story last Saturday, that on Sunday it would host the opposition party politician Laith Shbeilat in a special episode of "Pulse of the Country" to talk about the Jordanian-Palestinian relationship, however the special was cancelled.

Habashneh wrote a letter to the Minister of State for Media Affairs and Communications, Taher al-Adwan, informing him that security interventions were impacting the freedom of the channel and the government's development of the media and press is continuously being disturbed by security interventions.

Habashneh told the management of "Roya" he would not return to the channel to offer the program unless they allow Shbeilat to be a guest of the program.

The department of the channel discussed stopping "Pulse of the Country" altogether, or at least changing the policy, according to a meeting in the wake of Habashneh's resignation.

"AmmanNet" quoted sources familiar with President of Sayegh Group and Chairman of "Roya" businessman Michael Sayegh saying last month that there was pressure and threats because of the high levels of freedom of the channel, which Sayegh denied at the time.