Al Rai boycotts gov’t news for second consecutive day

AMMAN – Al Rai editorial team on Monday decided to boycott news related to Prime Minister Abdullah Ensour’s government for the second consecutive day to pressure decision makers to meet employees' demands. 

The Arabic daily's employees are calling for reforming the board of directors of the Jordan Press Foundation (JPF), which publishes Al Rai and The Jordan Times, as they accuse some members of preparing a restructuring plan while failing to address the main issues that caused a drop in revenues. 

They accuse the board of failing to find a solution for the commercial printing press on the airport road, which cost Jordan's largest print media outlet over JD35 million, saying that it has drained the finances of the JPF with over JD2 million pumped into the project every year. 

The employees want the printing press to be transformed into an independent company in order to help the JPF return to profitability.  

JPF employees also demand that board members Abdul Hafiz Ajlouni, Mansour Nabulsi and Mohammad Tarawneh be replaced. 

Late last month employees forced Ajlouni out of a meeting at the foundation’s premises. 

Khalil Shobaki, assistant chief editor at Al Rai who heads a committee representing workers, said the board of directors is to blame for the worsening distribution of the two newspapers as they focus on tightening spending rather than finding solutions for generating higher revenues.

In an article published on the newspaper’s front page Monday, Al Rai Chief Editor Samir Hiyari wrote that dialogue between JPF staff and the Social Security Investment Fund (SSIF), which owns around 55 per cent of the foundation’s shares, has stopped because the SSIF-appointed board has no serious intention to put an end to the dilemma, while employees believe that mismanagement is to blame for the drop in revenues. 

Hiyari noted that while the SSIF management deals with the profession as a business, it also appoints people who have no experience in the sector as board members. 

He added that the board should have focused on operating the printing press and boosted distribution rather than focusing on reducing operational costs by turning off some lights at offices or reducing the number of pages. 

With the issue of financially struggling print media dominating public opinion over the past weeks, Lower House Speaker Atef Tarawneh called on decision makers to find viable solutions to help newspapers recover, otherwise there will be negative repercussions on employees and the profession itself. 

Tarawneh’s remarks were echoed by Abdullah Obeidat, president of the Jordan Engineers Association, a shareholder at JPF and the Jordan Press and Publishing Company, which publishes Ad-Dustour, who said the association is observing the situation of the two newspapers with anxiety. 

Obeidat noted that restructuring would not be the right solution to fix financial woes, calling on the government to support print media outlets. 

Following Monday’s meeting of Al Rai editorial team, Hiyari told The Jordan Times that the boycott of government news would continue until the demands of JPF employees are met, adding that the name of MP Abdul Rahim Biqaei has been added to the list of board members who should be replaced for “his negative attitude that supports laying off employees”. 

This is not the first time the Arabic daily boycotts government news. In late 2013, Al Rai, along with The Jordan Times, took the same step to demand that the board implement a labour agreement it signed with workers’ representatives in 2011.

At the time, the staff members also demanded the dismissal of the board of directors, which was headed by former media affairs minister, Ali Al Ayed, who was representing the Arab Bank. 

Also on Monday, JPF Chairman Samih Maaytah briefed journalists on a meeting held with the SSIF to discuss developments at the foundation. 

He said the meeting did not cover the employees’ key demands.