AMMAN — The
House of Representatives approved Tuesday a government amendment to Article 225,
related to publishing prohibited court material, which replaces a fine of between
JD5 and JD25 with up to three months’ imprisonment for anyone who violates this
article of the Penal Code.
اضافة اعلان
Article 225
prohibits citizens, in general, and the media, in particular, from publishing
documents about criminal or misdemeanor investigations before they are read out
in a public session or during secret court sessions, documents concerning
custody trials, or any other trials that courts do not wish to make public.
Those in favor of
censorship consider it necessary to preserve the confidentiality and conduct of
an investigation, while others believe that it restricts freedom of expression
and withholds information from the public.
Journalist and
publisher
Basil Okoor told Jordan News that the amendments clearly aim
at imposing more restrictions on the press and public freedoms.
This, he said, is
dangerous, and replacing the monetary penalty with three months’ imprisonment
“shows the true nature of the mentality that controls public speech and
everything related to criticism of government performance”.
Okoor said that
this “attempt at boosting official procedures through legal means is now one of
the government’s tools aimed at intimidating people and, consequently,
restricting their freedoms”.
It is also a
“message heralding further restrictions on journalistic freedoms”.
Senator and
columnist
Jamil Al-Nimri told
Jordan News that the existing sanctions in
the Penal Code were sufficient to act as a deterrent, and that “the new
penalties are unjustified” and limit freedom of expression.
According to Nimri,
when the government finds itself under pressure from forces and activists in
society, it “decides to impose more restrictions by forcing lawmakers to
toughen the laws”.
Nidal Mansour, CEO
of the
Center for Defending Freedom of Journalists, told Jordan News that there should be no restrictions on the freedom of expression, and “this
so-called publishing crime, falls under free speech and expression”.
Mansour said that
amending the article by imposing a prison sentence instead of a fine “is a
strict measure in violation of international codes”. He added that “the
amendment contradicts Constitutional principles and is a violation of articles
contained in international treaties and agreements ratified by Jordan”.
According to
columnist Daoud Kuttab, “the Jordanian Parliament today is committing a
legislative bloodbath. The world is moving to decriminalize media-related
issues and Jordan has just slapped three months of imprisonment for violating
gag orders”, he said.
Read more National
Jordan News
.jpg)
.jpg)
