Three weeks on, Al Rai to continue gov’t boycott until demands met

AMMAN — Some three weeks after Al Rai daily started running articles critical of Prime Minister Abdullah Ensour’s government, senior editors vowed to continue with the new editorial approach. 

The newspaper, usually known as pro-government, started publishing anti-government reports on April 15 following two days of boycotting government news over accusations by journalists that decision makers are reluctant to address key issues threatening the financial stability of the Jordan Press Foundation (JPF). 

The state-owned Social Security Investment Fund owns 55 per cent of the JPF’s shares.

Employees of the JPF, which also publishes The Jordan Times, accuse some SSIF-appointed board members of preparing a restructuring plan while failing to address the continuous fall in revenues, mainly generated from advertisements.

They also accuse the board of failing to find a solution to the commercial printing press on the airport road, which cost over JD35 million, saying that it has drained the finances of the JPF with millions of dinars pumped into it every year. 

The employees want the printing press to be transformed into an independent company and sold to the Social Security Corporation, which they accuse of starting the project in order to help the JPF return to profitability.

They also want board members Abdul Hafiz Ajlouni, Mansour Nabulsi, Mohammad Tarawneh and MP Abdul Rahim Biqaai to be replaced.

Samir Hiyari, editor-in-chief of Jordan’s leading Arabic daily, told a large gathering of journalists and employees on Sunday that the newspaper will continue with its new approach of “unlimited press freedom” and continue to be objective in covering news of concern to the public. 

The unprecedented change in the editorial line has sparked scepticism among readers and observers on whether government criticism will continue when decision makers meet employees’ demands.

Iyad Waqfi, assistant chief editor of Al Rai, told The Jordan Times on Monday that the newspaper will only end its boycott of government news when JPF employees’ demands are met, but the new editorial approach will continue with objective reports that take the views of all sides. 

“Now we publish news against government policies and we do not take officials’ comments because we are boycotting them,” he said. 

Senior editors are currently drawing up a new editorial policy for the newspaper that will guarantee a wide margin of freedom, Waqfi said, adding that the policy also seeks to free journalists from self-censorship when writing news related to the government. 

“Criticising officials is not taboo,” Waqfi noted, stressing that the daily’s new approach cannot be changed as it would be disastrous for its credibility and image.