(ARTICLE 19/IFEX) – The following is an ARTICLE 19 press release: **Updates IFEX alert of 20 October 1999** For immediate release – London, 20 October 1999 JORDANIAN JOURNALISTS FACE SANCTIONS AFTER ISRAEL VISIT Three prominent Jordanian journalists face a professional ban for visiting Israel in September. The Jordan Press Association is likely to throw them […]
(ARTICLE 19/IFEX) – The following is an ARTICLE 19 press release:
**Updates IFEX alert of 20 October 1999**
For immediate release – London, 20 October 1999
JORDANIAN JOURNALISTS FACE SANCTIONS AFTER ISRAEL VISIT
Three prominent Jordanian journalists face a professional ban for visiting
Israel in September. The Jordan Press Association is likely to throw them
out for contravening its rules. Since membership is mandatory, expulsion
means they can no longer practice as journalists.
The JPA’s rules, which forbid members from “normalising” relations with
Israel or Israelis, are being used to punish Sultan Hattab, a columnist with
Al Ra’i, Abdullah Hasanat, Chief Editor of the Jordan Times and Jihad Momani
of Al Dustour.
The JPA’s disciplinary committee took action after the journalists accepted
an invitation from the Haifa University Centre for Arab-Jewish Studies and
visited Israel to learn about the political and academic conditions in which
Arab Israelis work.
Malcolm Smart, Deputy Director of ARTICLE 19 said today:
“To expel journalists simply for expressing unpopular opinions or visiting
other countries would be an outrageous abuse of their right to freedom of
expression. Jordan is contravening international standards in requiring
journalists, by law, to belong to a single state-sanctioned journalists’
association.”
International case law clearly establishes that conditions on who may
practise journalism, including a requirement of belonging to a specific
professional association, is an illegitimate restriction on the right to
freedom of expression.
ARTICLE 19 today appealed to the members of the JPA council to throw out the
disciplinary committee’s recommendation for expulsion of the three
journalists.
Despite King Abdullah’s stated commitment to reform, the repressive 1998
Press and Publications Law remains in force. Amendments made this summer
failing to address many serious restrictions on press freedom, including
prior censorship of books and imported publications.
