No one liked the last Lower House but this one is just acting retarded these days. AmmanNet, which is now Radio Al-Balad, has been banned from broadcasting the Lower House of Parliament sessions because apparently they’ve insulted MP’s. Apparently the “insult” came by way of a comment posted by a reader on January 29th.
According to (Sawsan) Zaidah, radio manager, as of early January, the station started implementing a monitoring system on the website that filters comments.
“In the system, we have created a blacklist of words. If one of the words in the blacklist is in the comments, the system will not publish it. But the word that the Lower House sees as insulting was not on this blacklist,” she told The Jordan Times. Zaidah added that there is a disclaimer on the station’s website clarifying that comments solely reflect readers’ opinions.
According to Yehya Shqeir, a media law expert, article 189 of the Penal Code imposes penalties on publications and media outlets that publish words or descriptions deemed insulting to the Parliament or its members. [source]
Radio Al-Balad may look like a normal website, but it is at the end of the day, blog-enabled and embedded with fundamentals of citizen journalism. People are allowed to write and submit, while readers are allowed to comment.
So to look at this another way: the elected Lower House has decided that comments, left by random people, on anyone’s “website” can be deemed “insulting” and even “criminal” to the extent that those who run such “websites” can be sued. At least as far as those “insulting” words are about them.
Oh.
And they also investigated themselves.
I wonder if the legal system will be as stupid as the Lower House!
Oh wait… you could be sued for that comment I made! Ooops!
lol thanks a lot lina! 😀
(i don’t think i have to worry too much since this blog’s in english. it might as well be chinese)
tayeb what was the comment … im curious 😀
Yea, so what was the comment?! 🙂
Oh, and abdel hadi el majali the other day highlighted the Lower House’s role in political reform:
“Lower House Speaker Abdul Hadi Majali on Monday underlined the House’s role in reinforcing the country’s political reform, and activating the role of political parties. During a meeting with participants in a women’s political empowerment programme yesterday, Majali said political reform is linked with the House’s legislative and monitoring roles, noting that deputies have worked on several pieces of legislation regulating political activity in the country. These include the Political Parties Law and the Press and Publications Law, Majali said, pointing out that political reform requires a system that allows members of the media easy access to information. ”
From JT.
This is the definition of mas7’ara, plain and simple.
So I guess the description, “saggy, pompous pieces of horse excrement” would clear the sensors?
I don’t know if I got it right but as far as I understood that means that if I cussed out the lower house on a blog then the blog owner could be sued? Brilliant.
Ola: ” if I cussed out the lower house on a blog then the blog owner could be sued? ”
this is to encourage cussing them in public, in the bus, in the street, in the bathroom, and even in a romantic date…
Thank god i’m cussing them on my own blog, and not by commenting on someone else’s blog!
Screw the stuipdness! why cant a normal person like me, go to the parliament, and start his own bahadel with each and every fat guy of those!
Dear Nasim
the comment was read on the air and not just on the web
I know! and again … where is the problem in that!
the show is about reading the web comments
& Still!
this wont change anything in the street … and in front of people, just 3 or 4 days ago i cussed the lower house members in front of the vice president of the traffic police because of their rejection of the new traffic law …. & how they care only about their butts and the cars in which they and their youngsters sit in roaming with 140 Kms/h and crossing red lines carelessly … I said it publicly in front of a bunch of people including a high graded chief in the police dept.
I guess that we, the people, are the ones who elected the lower house ,,, they are responsible of their work infront of us…. and we have the right even to hit their shiny bold heads with tomatoes! and say whatever we want about them … in any way we, the citizens, find proper to reach them (since many of them have chosen not to allow us into their offices after winning the elections).