JOURNALIST ACQUITTED OF SLANDER CHARGES

C O N F I D E N T I A L AMMAN 000994 SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 04/28/2019 TAGS: PHUM PGOV KISL KDEM JO SUBJECT: JOURNALIST ACQUITTED OF SLANDER CHARGES REF: A. AMMAN 876 ¶B. 08 AMMAN 3105 ¶C. 07 AMMAN 2605 Classified By: Ambassador R. Stephen Beecroft for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d). ¶1. (U) A Jordanian court acquitted journalist Khaled Mahadin of slander charges on April 27. The case was brought against Mahadin by parliament's secretary general over an online article that included allegations of corruption by lower house speaker Abdulhadi Al-Majali (Ref A). The Court of First Instance judge dismissed the charges against Mahadin, saying that his article did not meet the legal definition of slander. In a statement, Mahadin called the ruling "a win for all Jordanian journalists." Prominent Islamist lawyer Saleh Al-Armouti, who defended Mahadin, said that the judge's ruling was based on articles in Jordan's constitution which guarantee "personal freedom" in spite of penal code articles that allow prison sentences for journalists. ¶2. (U) The day after the verdict was announced, Majali issued an administrative directive banning journalists from the offices of the lower house secretariat and restricting their access to individual members of parliament. Lower house media advisor Hamdan Hajj told reporters that the legislature would remain open to "committed press personnel." ¶3. (C) Comment: In November 2008, the King publicly stated that detention of journalists should be "prohibited." His comments were an attempt to acculturate government officials to the ongoing process of expanding media freedoms which started with changes to the Press and Publications Law in 2007, eliminating jail time for journalists (Ref C). Yet loopholes in Jordan's penal code still allow journalists to face jail time for certain crimes, slander being one of them. The case against Mahadin did not address the substance of his allegations of corruption against Majali. It was based on the flimsier logic of an alleged "insult" against an institution of government. The case points to the cultural difference that still exists between members of Jordan's old guard, who expect journalists to respectfully REPORT official statements without commentary, and journalists who are increasingly bold in their testing of that red line. Visit Embassy Amman's website at http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/nea/amman/ Beecroft