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Poll: 77% of Jordanian journalists summoned by security agencies in 2021

March 1, 2022 at 9:43 am

Jordanian security forces, 19 November 2016 [KHALIL MAZRAAWI/AFP/Getty Images]

The Centre for Defending Freedom of Journalists (CDFJ) said yesterday that 77.3 per cent of Jordanian journalists were summoned by security agencies in 2021, Arabi21 reported.

In a report released yesterday the CDFJ also found that 83 per cent of the Jordanian journalists believe that the government rarely investigates violations committed against them.

According to the Media Freedom Index in Jordan for 2021, the journalists said they were summoned by the security agencies on grounds of their work in the media.

The CDFJ was established in 1998 as a civil society organisation working to defend media freedoms in Jordan.

During the press conference held to announce the findings of the annual Media Freedom Index, CDFJ’s Executive Director, Nidal Mansour, reiterated that the Jordanian mass media lost its credibility after it refrained from covering important local issues, including the suppression of the Teachers’ Union over its strike against the government and the “sedition” inside the royal family.

The CDFJ stated that the Media Freedom Index in Jordan was classified as “restricted” in 2021 compared to “partially restricted” in 2020, referring the reason for the retreat of freedoms to the new legislations regulated to restrict the work of the media.

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