Kings Are Wild
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BOB GARFIELD: This week, in Amman, Jordan, a reporter named Hadi Nsour from the daily newspaper Al Ghad, was arrested by government security agents after his controversial story linked a local lawyer to a deadly suicide bombing in Iraq. It's a touchy subject, and the facts of the case are murky. But one thing is clear: the immediate blame fell on the messenger, which in Jordan, despite rhetoric about flourishing democracy, is an alarming trend. Six weeks ago, in the first press conference of his second term, President Bush was surprised by a question about another episode - the jailing in Jordan of Islamist firebrand Ali Hatar for publicly criticizing the United States.
GEORGE W. BUSH: You've asked me to comment on something that I didn't know took place. I urge my friend, his majesty, to make sure that democracy continues to advance in Jordan. I noticed today that he put forth a reform that will help more people participate in future governments of Jordan. I appreciate his majesty's understanding of the need for democracy to advance in the greater Middle East.
BOB GARFIELD: Well, yes and no. The Kingdom of Jordan, a longtime ally of the United States, is one of the more progressive Arab nations. His Majesty, King Abdullah, like his father King Hussein before him, has deep ties with the West and a constitutional monarchy with highly visible elements of democracy - an elected parliament, for instance, and a declaration from the king himself that, where freedom of expression is concerned, (quote) "the sky's the limit." Alas, that sky fell on Ali Hatar, who was jailed for criticizing Jordan's alliance with the United States. It fell on the weekly Al-Majd, which was closed after it printed criticism of a Saudi-Jordanian oil deal. It fell this week on Hadi Nsour, the journalist arrested for his Iraq suicide bombing story, just as it earlier fell on Nsour's colleague, Mohammed Jayyousi. That young reporter filed but could not publish an innocuous piece about a Jordanian minister visiting Israel for a trade negotiation. I asked him:
BOB GARFIELD: Is it because people object to him doing business with the Israelis?
MAHMOUD JAYUSI: Yeah. Sort of. Yeah. The government was embarrassed, and also they will move the public opinion, so act against the government.
DAOUD KUTTAB: The king has said that the sky is the limit. But this statement has not really been translated into action.
BOB GARFIELD:Daoud Kuttab is a democracy activist and founder of Amman.net - an internet radio station which, in his words, is doing something completely illegal in a legal way, because the 24 laws restricting the press don't cover online content.
DAOUD KUTTAB: There is criminal and there is emergency laws, there are state security laws, there is commercial laws, there IS slander laws. So, the journalist writes something that's bad; they can basically drag you to the courts. So, it becomes very difficult to really do things in the investigative reporting area.
BOB GARFIELD: Or in any other area. It is illegal to criticize the king. It is illegal to offend neighboring Arab states, or any other country, for that matter. It is illegal to discuss security issues. And certain social issues are taboo as well. [MUSIC] [ANNOUNCEMENT IN ARAB LANGUAGE]
BOB GARFIELD:This is Radio Fann, a new independent station, where executive manager Nadine Kirresh delivers Western and Arabic pop music and brief news breaks to a youthful population with no place to turn when real life intrudes beyond the top 40.
NADINE KIRRESH: Like any country, we have our set of problems. I'm sure you're very familiar with the whole honor killing thing. Drugs. Nobody knows what the drug problem is in Jordan. I'm sure there's a drug problem. Sex. Sex, in terms of sex before marriage, sexual problems during marriage, sexual molestation, incest - a lot of issues that people have a lot of reservations about.
BOB GARFIELD: And so, Radio Fann doesn't get into all that. Not that it necessarily would. It's a music station. But it takes care in its news headlines to ruffle no feathers whatsoever.
NADINE KIRRESH: Don't criticize the King or the government just for the sake of criticizing. Don't be provocative. But, other than that, you say whatever you want to say.
BOB GARFIELD: In Jordan by law, but also by habit and, it seems, native temperament, some things are deemed just none of the press's business.
SAMIR BARHOUM: Sometimes we'll have to take national interest above any other consideration.
BOB GARFIELD: Samir Barhoum is editor of the Jordan Times, an English language daily which, like its Arabic sibling Al-Rai, is 65 percent owned by the government social security agency. On a scale of one to ten, where ten represents absolute freedom, Barhoum estimates his paper operates at about a seven, covering the news without interference, so long as it doesn't intrude on state security or the affairs of other Arab nations. His paper has occasionally tested those boundaries, but he's not especially eager to discuss that on tape.
BOB GARFIELD: Are you sometimes frustrated by the constraints about what you can print?
SAMIR BARHOUM: Sometimes, yes.
BOB GARFIELD: Can you give me some examples?
SAMIR BARHOUM: No. Not now.
BOB GARFIELD: Much of the Times' domestic content is provided by the state run news agency Petra, which dutifully records all of King Abdullah's doings and reports them directly from the palace, knowing that those accounts will be run by the Times, Al-Rai, Jordan TV and Radio Jordan more or less verbatim. I asked Barhoum if the Jordan Times wasn't, therefore, in effect the house organ of the royal court.
SAMIR BARHOUM: We are not involved in being the house organ of the royal court. The king is ruler of the country, and he is the head of all authorities in Jordan here.
BOB GARFIELD: Radio Fann's Nadine Kirresh.
NADINE KIRRESH: You know what? We would much rather have him or that entire family ruling this country for the next 500 years than having, you know, a democracy and elections and then god, who knows who's going to win and maybe you have somebody that's extreme in his thinking and - no, we're very happy with the system we have.
BOB GARFIELD: Ah, the elephant in the room - radical Islam. Better to have a monarchy you know and love than a democratically-elected Islamist who democratically re-institutes the Middle Ages. On the other hand, the history of Muslim thought is the history of incorporating religion into all aspects of life, and to Ibrahim Izz al-Din, the thought of trying to separate religion from politics is absurd.
IBRAHIM IZZ AL-DIN: I don't think you are going to see any moment in our history that people who teach Islam, that they are not going to involve themselves in political, economic, and social issues.
BOB GARFIELD: Izz al-Din is the chairman of Jordan's Higher Media Council which this month will issue a report of the year in Jordanian press freedom - a report that is filled with horror stories but which, nonetheless, leaves him guardedly optimistic. The very fact that his council has been commissioned to document government transgressions and to lobby for press de-regulation, he says, is encouraging in itself.
IBRAHIM IZZ AL-DIN: No government would like to be criticized, but the most important thing is to draw a balance and to have bodies like our body that could mediate and could say whatever should be said in a very transparent manner.
BOB GARFIELD: He points to some small victories - changes in laws to permit books to be published without government review, to give journalists more and timelier access to the bureaucracy, and soon, he believes, to end the jailing of reporters for journalistic transgressions. He also predicts the licensing of more independent media companies. [MUSIC] One such is Daoud Kuttab's Amman.net, which averted prosecution by transmitting online to the neighboring West Bank, where Palestinian radio stations broadcast his programming back into Jordan. Now, he has been awarded an FM frequency in Jordan.
DAOUD KUTTAB: The license is restrictive. We can't do news and politics, but still, it's not clear what news is and what politics is, so we'll be doing a lot of local community based programming that we will not have news, but it will be local programming and local issues, and we think that we will be adding a little bit to the experiment, which is to help in the internal struggle.
BOB GARFIELD: That's the struggle within the Jordanian government between liberal thinkers and the old guard. King Abdullah is reputed allied with the forces of change, but - based on the current state of affairs - no one can be sure.
DAOUD KUTTAB: He does need to walk the walk. He cannot just talk the talk. It's his government that is making the laws, and his government is enforcing the laws; it's his government that is putting people in jail for their opinions. It is his government that stills owns and controls the main radio and television station. It's his government still owns 65 percent of the major newspaper. So, it sounds good when he's in New York and London and in Washington, but you can't speak one way outside and then act a different way inside.
BOB GARFIELD: Can't? Maybe Kuttab meant to say "shouldn't." The fact is, and maybe the problem is too, that for free expression in Jordan, the sky is not the limit. The limit is the patience of his Majesty the King. [THEME MUSIC UP & UNDER]
BOB GARFIELD: 58:00 That's it for this week's show. On the Media was produced by Megan Ryan, Tony Field, Jamie York and Mike Vuolo, and edited by-- Brooke. Dylan Keefe is our technical director; Jennifer Munson our engineer. We had help from Susanna Dilliplane and Nick Gilewicz. Our webmaster is Amy Pearl.
BROOKE GLADSTONE: Katya Rogers is our senior producer and Dean Cappello our executive producer. Bassist/composer Ben Allison wrote our theme. You can listen to the program and find free transcripts, MP3 downloads and our podcasts at onthemedia.org, and email us at onthemedia@wnyc.org. This is On the Media, from WNYC. I'm Brooke Gladstone.
BOB GARFIELD: And I'm Bob Garfield. [THEME MUSIC TAG]
copyright 2005 WNYC Radio
GEORGE W. BUSH: You've asked me to comment on something that I didn't know took place. I urge my friend, his majesty, to make sure that democracy continues to advance in Jordan. I noticed today that he put forth a reform that will help more people participate in future governments of Jordan. I appreciate his majesty's understanding of the need for democracy to advance in the greater Middle East.
BOB GARFIELD: Well, yes and no. The Kingdom of Jordan, a longtime ally of the United States, is one of the more progressive Arab nations. His Majesty, King Abdullah, like his father King Hussein before him, has deep ties with the West and a constitutional monarchy with highly visible elements of democracy - an elected parliament, for instance, and a declaration from the king himself that, where freedom of expression is concerned, (quote) "the sky's the limit." Alas, that sky fell on Ali Hatar, who was jailed for criticizing Jordan's alliance with the United States. It fell on the weekly Al-Majd, which was closed after it printed criticism of a Saudi-Jordanian oil deal. It fell this week on Hadi Nsour, the journalist arrested for his Iraq suicide bombing story, just as it earlier fell on Nsour's colleague, Mohammed Jayyousi. That young reporter filed but could not publish an innocuous piece about a Jordanian minister visiting Israel for a trade negotiation. I asked him:
BOB GARFIELD: Is it because people object to him doing business with the Israelis?
MAHMOUD JAYUSI: Yeah. Sort of. Yeah. The government was embarrassed, and also they will move the public opinion, so act against the government.
DAOUD KUTTAB: The king has said that the sky is the limit. But this statement has not really been translated into action.
BOB GARFIELD:Daoud Kuttab is a democracy activist and founder of Amman.net - an internet radio station which, in his words, is doing something completely illegal in a legal way, because the 24 laws restricting the press don't cover online content.
DAOUD KUTTAB: There is criminal and there is emergency laws, there are state security laws, there is commercial laws, there IS slander laws. So, the journalist writes something that's bad; they can basically drag you to the courts. So, it becomes very difficult to really do things in the investigative reporting area.
BOB GARFIELD: Or in any other area. It is illegal to criticize the king. It is illegal to offend neighboring Arab states, or any other country, for that matter. It is illegal to discuss security issues. And certain social issues are taboo as well. [MUSIC] [ANNOUNCEMENT IN ARAB LANGUAGE]
BOB GARFIELD:This is Radio Fann, a new independent station, where executive manager Nadine Kirresh delivers Western and Arabic pop music and brief news breaks to a youthful population with no place to turn when real life intrudes beyond the top 40.
NADINE KIRRESH: Like any country, we have our set of problems. I'm sure you're very familiar with the whole honor killing thing. Drugs. Nobody knows what the drug problem is in Jordan. I'm sure there's a drug problem. Sex. Sex, in terms of sex before marriage, sexual problems during marriage, sexual molestation, incest - a lot of issues that people have a lot of reservations about.
BOB GARFIELD: And so, Radio Fann doesn't get into all that. Not that it necessarily would. It's a music station. But it takes care in its news headlines to ruffle no feathers whatsoever.
NADINE KIRRESH: Don't criticize the King or the government just for the sake of criticizing. Don't be provocative. But, other than that, you say whatever you want to say.
BOB GARFIELD: In Jordan by law, but also by habit and, it seems, native temperament, some things are deemed just none of the press's business.
SAMIR BARHOUM: Sometimes we'll have to take national interest above any other consideration.
BOB GARFIELD: Samir Barhoum is editor of the Jordan Times, an English language daily which, like its Arabic sibling Al-Rai, is 65 percent owned by the government social security agency. On a scale of one to ten, where ten represents absolute freedom, Barhoum estimates his paper operates at about a seven, covering the news without interference, so long as it doesn't intrude on state security or the affairs of other Arab nations. His paper has occasionally tested those boundaries, but he's not especially eager to discuss that on tape.
BOB GARFIELD: Are you sometimes frustrated by the constraints about what you can print?
SAMIR BARHOUM: Sometimes, yes.
BOB GARFIELD: Can you give me some examples?
SAMIR BARHOUM: No. Not now.
BOB GARFIELD: Much of the Times' domestic content is provided by the state run news agency Petra, which dutifully records all of King Abdullah's doings and reports them directly from the palace, knowing that those accounts will be run by the Times, Al-Rai, Jordan TV and Radio Jordan more or less verbatim. I asked Barhoum if the Jordan Times wasn't, therefore, in effect the house organ of the royal court.
SAMIR BARHOUM: We are not involved in being the house organ of the royal court. The king is ruler of the country, and he is the head of all authorities in Jordan here.
BOB GARFIELD: Radio Fann's Nadine Kirresh.
NADINE KIRRESH: You know what? We would much rather have him or that entire family ruling this country for the next 500 years than having, you know, a democracy and elections and then god, who knows who's going to win and maybe you have somebody that's extreme in his thinking and - no, we're very happy with the system we have.
BOB GARFIELD: Ah, the elephant in the room - radical Islam. Better to have a monarchy you know and love than a democratically-elected Islamist who democratically re-institutes the Middle Ages. On the other hand, the history of Muslim thought is the history of incorporating religion into all aspects of life, and to Ibrahim Izz al-Din, the thought of trying to separate religion from politics is absurd.
IBRAHIM IZZ AL-DIN: I don't think you are going to see any moment in our history that people who teach Islam, that they are not going to involve themselves in political, economic, and social issues.
BOB GARFIELD: Izz al-Din is the chairman of Jordan's Higher Media Council which this month will issue a report of the year in Jordanian press freedom - a report that is filled with horror stories but which, nonetheless, leaves him guardedly optimistic. The very fact that his council has been commissioned to document government transgressions and to lobby for press de-regulation, he says, is encouraging in itself.
IBRAHIM IZZ AL-DIN: No government would like to be criticized, but the most important thing is to draw a balance and to have bodies like our body that could mediate and could say whatever should be said in a very transparent manner.
BOB GARFIELD: He points to some small victories - changes in laws to permit books to be published without government review, to give journalists more and timelier access to the bureaucracy, and soon, he believes, to end the jailing of reporters for journalistic transgressions. He also predicts the licensing of more independent media companies. [MUSIC] One such is Daoud Kuttab's Amman.net, which averted prosecution by transmitting online to the neighboring West Bank, where Palestinian radio stations broadcast his programming back into Jordan. Now, he has been awarded an FM frequency in Jordan.
DAOUD KUTTAB: The license is restrictive. We can't do news and politics, but still, it's not clear what news is and what politics is, so we'll be doing a lot of local community based programming that we will not have news, but it will be local programming and local issues, and we think that we will be adding a little bit to the experiment, which is to help in the internal struggle.
BOB GARFIELD: That's the struggle within the Jordanian government between liberal thinkers and the old guard. King Abdullah is reputed allied with the forces of change, but - based on the current state of affairs - no one can be sure.
DAOUD KUTTAB: He does need to walk the walk. He cannot just talk the talk. It's his government that is making the laws, and his government is enforcing the laws; it's his government that is putting people in jail for their opinions. It is his government that stills owns and controls the main radio and television station. It's his government still owns 65 percent of the major newspaper. So, it sounds good when he's in New York and London and in Washington, but you can't speak one way outside and then act a different way inside.
BOB GARFIELD: Can't? Maybe Kuttab meant to say "shouldn't." The fact is, and maybe the problem is too, that for free expression in Jordan, the sky is not the limit. The limit is the patience of his Majesty the King. [THEME MUSIC UP & UNDER]
BOB GARFIELD: 58:00 That's it for this week's show. On the Media was produced by Megan Ryan, Tony Field, Jamie York and Mike Vuolo, and edited by-- Brooke. Dylan Keefe is our technical director; Jennifer Munson our engineer. We had help from Susanna Dilliplane and Nick Gilewicz. Our webmaster is Amy Pearl.
BROOKE GLADSTONE: Katya Rogers is our senior producer and Dean Cappello our executive producer. Bassist/composer Ben Allison wrote our theme. You can listen to the program and find free transcripts, MP3 downloads and our podcasts at onthemedia.org, and email us at onthemedia@wnyc.org. This is On the Media, from WNYC. I'm Brooke Gladstone.
BOB GARFIELD: And I'm Bob Garfield. [THEME MUSIC TAG]
copyright 2005 WNYC Radio
Produced by WNYC Studios