Jordan Media Sustainability Index (MSI)
November 3, 2011
About the MSI
IREX designed the MSI to measure the strength and viability of any country’s media sector. The MSI considers all the factors that contribute to a media system—the quality of journalism, effectiveness of management, the legal environment supporting freedom of the press, and more—to arrive at scores on a scale ranging between 0 and 4. These scores represent the strength of the media sector components and can be analyzed over time to chart progress (or regression) within a country. Additionally, countries or regions may be compared to one another. IREX currently conducts the MSI in 80 countries, and produced the first Middle East and North Africa MSI in 2005.
MSI Overview | Africa | Asia | Europe & Eurasia | Middle East & North Africa
Download the Complete Jordan MSI Chapter (PDF): 2009 | 2008 | 2006/7 | 2005
MSI Jordan - 2009 Introduction
Overall Country Score: 2.19
On one level, this Middle Eastern kingdom appears to score high points when considering media freedom. But on the ground, the authorities maintain their hold over the official and semi-official media. Furthermore, although jordan's media climate experienced no dramatic change in 2009, the government began to show signs of nerves over the expanding influence of online media and other private media outlets. The mushrooming websites, blogs, and private FM radios—which tend to critique the government more boldly than traditional media—have not escaped the authorities' attention.
While many websites lack professionalism and ethical standards, MSI panelists said, the traditional media have turned into monotonous mouthpieces of the authorities. Because the people have little voice in almost all official radio and television stations and papers (except for Al Arab Al Yawm, generally considered Jordan's only independent daily), they tend to turn to sometimes unruly and defamatory websites as their major source of information. In 2010, the government responded by introducing a tough law on Internet and electronic news. Instead of giving more freedom to the traditional media, the government seems bent on quieting online media outlets.
The eighth annual survey conducted by the Center for Defending Freedom of Journalists in 2009 explored the developing role of online and new media in Jordan, along with developments surrounding a professional code of ethics and efforts to influence journalists, and the effects of a new code of conduct set by the government. Overall, the survey revealed a dampening of the optimism of recent years that accompanied royal directives in support of media freedoms—such as the king's assurances that the practice of detaining journalists would be banned. Yet journalists still face this risk under the penal code, and they continue to endure other forms of pressure, both overt and subtle, that impede their work.
