Despite the grim reality, I see  promising glimmer of hope. There is a generation of digital journalists who, given the opportunity, have the potential to transform the entire landscape — met by an equally promising generation of enlightened decision-makers within the corridors of the state. What they need is a bold legislative, regulatory, and financial environment capable of shifting the state of press freedom — and many other sectors — from deep red to a promising green.

Ultimately, we must not overlook the significance of Jordan's five-place advance in press freedom rankings, particularly against the backdrop of a global decline in press freedoms overall — including the restrictions being witnessed in a country like the United States, which invented the very concept of freedom to begin with — alongside the growing dominance of capital and vested interests over the media industry. This is to say nothing of journalists being killed and eliminated in the occupied territories and in other parts of the world.

Yet none of this should lull us into comfort or complacency. What lies ahead demands a free press that stands by its country and fights on what may well be the most dangerous front of all: the arenas of digital media.