On August 9, prominent satirical journalist Ahmed Hassan Al-Zoubi was sentenced to one year in jail by a Jordanian court of appeal. His case is linked to a critical post he shared on social media in relation to a series of transportation strikes that took place in Ma'an Governorate in December 2022, he said on X, formerly known as Twitter. The police intercepted the vehicle that was taking Al-Zoubi to Amman airport on March 24, 2022. They took the journalists to security headquarters and released him without charge.
On August 8, journalist Hiba Abu Taha was detained by the security services on charges of defaming an official body and was released the next day, after appealing the court’s ruling. In June, a court in Aman sentenced to a three months jail term as a result of a post she shared on Facebook relating to confrontations in Al-Aqsa Mosque between Palestinians and Israelis. Allegedly, the journalist criticised the role of the Jordanian king Abdullah in the normalisation of relations with Israel.
Al-Zoybi and Taha’s prison sentences are based on the current Internet Crimes Law. However, the crackdown on journalists and media freedom is expected to worsen, following the amendments proposed by the government and adopted by the parliament on July 27. The new cybercrime law requires the signature of the Jordanian King before it comes into force.
Jordan's Cybercrime Law, passed in June 2015, has become a recurrent tool for Jordanian authorities to stifle free speech and media freedom. The amended text contains disproportionate jail sentences and fines for views expressed on social media platforms. It faced objections and protests from a wide range of actors such as trade unions, media and journalists organisations, political parties and civil society organisations.
The IFJ-affiliate, the Jordanian Press Association, and the Jordan Bar Association engaged in extensive negotiations with the Parliament and the Senate in the last months, which led to substantial improvement on some articles.
Nevertheless, the final text approved by the chambers criminalises freedom of expression and press offences, restricting journalists’ freedom to report the news and inform the public. If the content is deemed inaccurate, offencive or defamatory, journalists can be imprisoned for years and get fines amounting tens of thousands of dollars.
The IFJ Deputy General Secretary Tim Dawson said: “It is outrageous that the Jordanian government is moving to further tighten these laws, given the catastrophic effect of the existing restrictive laws on journalists and the independence of journalism in the country. The newly adopted cybercrime law means that Jordanian journalists will face serious threats for simply doing their job and will endure one of the most punitive legal media environments in the region.”