Different media sites have tackled the issue of the attack by thugs on participants in the march on Friday with different perspectives, and via differing sources. These sources varied from security forces, demonstrators, the government, video, and social networks, among others.

This is going to be the issue discussed in this week’s edition of Eye on the Media:

Different scenarios, varied coverage:

Writer and political analyst Oraib Rentawi investigated the issue; some media dealt with it frankly in a critical way, and others were somehow shy, as if they were discussing normal news. Rentawi mentioned that electronic websites carried a great deal of coverage of the incident.

Rentawi also told Eye on the Media that some writers have dealt with the incident from a critical and analytical point of view, as what happened threatens the security and freedom of expression of the Jordanian citizen in a civilized demonstration, while there was no real accusations brought against the violations on journalists who participated in the demonstration.

Kol Al-Urdun website Editor in Chief Alaa Fazaa said that the reason for these discrepancies was the differing sources that each and every website has.

Fazaa mentioned that the real forces behind this attack managed to shuffle all of the media and images surrounding this event in a way that made it difficult to specify exactly what happened and who perpetrated it.

From his side, Khabberni news website Editor in Chief Mohammad Hawandeh said that what his website published came out of what numerous eyewitnesses told them, because they would ideally be best informed of the story. They told Khabberni that peddlers, claiming that the repeated demonstrations have negatively affected their businesses, attacked demonstrators. This was the scenario adopted by the Public Security Department.

Hawamdeh clarified that peddlers’ interests clashed with the other side’s interests, who were affected by the demonstrators calling for a disassembling of the parliament.

Government, media reform:

Minister of State for Media Affairs and Communications Taher Odwan has reiterated that the government statement will include a number of media-related issues, as his ministry is planning to work on opening the door to facilitate discussion of the laws organizing the media and how they can work to serve its freedom.

Odwan told Eye on the Media that the government plans to amend the laws in a way that guarantees more freedom, as reform should include other media sectors, such as the Audiovisual Commission, newspapers, and electronic websites.

As for the ‘official media,’ Odwan, who presided over the Radio and Television Board as well as Jordan News Agency ‘Petra,’ the reform process will not be easy to carry out due to the obstacles we may find in the way. We need the support of the ‘decision maker’ in a way that guarantees an independent state media, not a governmental one.

Odwan confirmed that Jordanian TV also has a number of experts, and that the will to increase citizens’ freedom is available, yet the political policies of the country have largely determined its constraints.

When asked his opinion about what national TV’s change of the name and guests on the ’60 minutes’ program last Friday—in response to what happened at the program—as it was supposed to host a number of youth talking about youth concerns and their movements, Odwan said that it occurred due to developing circumstances in the kingdom. He added that the Jordanian mind is open to everyone in, as there are no restrictions specific to any one citizen, as long they fall within the bounds of the Jordanian constitution.

The minister pointed out that the people behind this have to know that there is no need to magnify it. They know that Al-Arab Al-Yawm daily newspaper, for which Odwan was the Editor in Chief, helped to act as a platform for them to deliver their speeches, as it turned their names into headlines in different newspapers.

Taher Al-Odwan has clarified that Jordanian TV is the cource that suggested changing the hosts of this program, receiving Mazen Al-Saket (the Minister of Public Sector Reform and Minister of Political Development) and MP Wafaa Mustafa, who was among the MPs who did not grant the government of former Prime Minister Samir Rifai their confidence. Odwan said that the chance to host youths on the program still exists.

The reform process that will include reconsideration of the council of the Radio and Television, needs time, according to Taher Odwan, so he will work hard to guarantee a higher level of freedom among media and journalists.

Oraib Rentawi considered that what Minister Odwan talked about regarding Rentawi presiding over the TV council is an old issue. Rentawi stressed that there should be identical points of view between the state and the public opinion regarding the importance of independent institutions, in order to achieve the ultimate ‘state media,’ not a government or officially-sponsored media, under the condition it be, above all, a responsible media.

Rentawi indicated that many attempts have taken place in the kingdom attempting to establish responsible boards. But the ongoing interfere has not stopped, which has made the consecutive governments back up and refuse to undertake the procedures set to keep and maintain independent institutions. Instead, governments passed the responsibility to the Minister of Media, to give it a chance to be tested hypothetically, without building up on a stable and accumulative road that could eventually lead to the indepedence of these insitutions.

Rentawi added that there is no point in linking these institutions to the Ministry of Media as long as we want it to be independent. This has all been agreed upon earlier and, as of now, merely awaits putting ink to paper.

It is going to be meaningless, according to Oraib, to propose independent institutions if the government does not intend to take the matter seriously. This leads to the question about the political intention to have such a concept here in Jordan.

We prefer to wait to see before we judge the direction of the government and the Ministry of Media within the reform process. Rentawi concluded that he is not going to be optimistic unless he sees practical results, indicating that his previous experience has led to nothing but pessimism.

Government priorities… Rules or code of conduct?

Taher Odwan, the Minister of State for Media Affairs and Communications, added that the governmental statement that will be submitted to the Parliament is supposed to contain political reforms in addition to the code of conduct reform that the cabinet’s council has decided to review.

Writer Oraib Rentawi also stressed that priority should be given to laws that indicate media freedom and independence, putting an end to government interference in the daily newspapers’ affairs, and that are critical of the government’s role in appointing editors-in-chief in a way that has turned some media organizations into governmental tools, among other issues that must be prioritized on the reform agenda.

Regarding the code of conduct, Rentawi pointed out that there was no need to cancel it, as it contains conceptions and ideas that have already been agreed upon. He also called for an improved code of conduct, instead, a more mature and civilized one.

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