Posted 8/23/2002 12:40:00 PM by Ocean Guy
Moderate Islam Watch

I saw this a few days ago and did not get around to blogging it. It's a summary of Freedom of the Press in the Islamic World. The contributors were 4 Muslim journalists who are surprisingly candid. Of particular interest to me were the Jordanian journalist's words on the state of Jordan's Press Freedoms:

All the visiting journalists mentioned that government pressure and regulation is not the only source of censorship. They decried the lack of quality education and the spreading influence of fundamentalist interpretations of Islam, which create intolerance among the public for views that are labeled anti-Islamic. As a result, Dina Zorba noted, journalists fear attack by members of the public as much or more as they fear arrest. Defaming Islam, Zorba confirmed, is a religious crime punishable by death in Jordan. She noted that such a sentence would be imposed and carried out by the public, not by a government office. Also, Zorba said that she feared she would lose her readership if she tried to write any article in favor of peace with Israel. Although a peace treaty exists between Israel and Jordan, she noted, the journalists' union was fiercely opposed to normalization with Israel and sanctioned members who wrote positive articles about Israel.