Press Freedoms: A ‘You Gotta Be Kidding Me’ Moment

Brought to you by JPA President, Tareq Momani, in a Jordan Times article:

…But Jordan Press Association President Tareq Momani disagreed with the results of RWB’s index. He said Jordan stands at a position of “relative freedom of press”, explaining that on a scale of one to one hundred, the Kingdom would be around the 50s.

Me? I like small round numbers. Makes it easier. On my own scale of one to ten, ten being monkey’s throwing feces at each other, I think press freedoms in the country are at about a 9.

This calculation, Momani added, will be backed up by a soon-to-be released Higher Media Council survey.

Of course it will.

The report, covering some 500 journalists and media staff working in Jordan, shows that the Kingdom enjoys “relative” freedom of the press for the third consecutive year.

“Relative” meaning, that as usual, the report is comparing press freedoms in Jordan to that of Cuba, Iran and the Roman empire.

On a more serious note: in response to the RWB report showing the Kingdom taking a brutal beating in the rankings of world press freedoms, spokesperson Nasser Judah has said the government is going to take the report very seriously and conduct “a thorough study” on its results.

So don’t worry.

Everything should be a-okay.

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