Censorship Reports
According to the OpenNet Initiative:
“Access to Internet content in Jordan remains largely unfettered, with filtering selectively applied to only a small number of sites. However, media laws and regulations encourage some measure of self-censorship in cyberspace, and citizens have reportedly been questioned and arrested for Web content they have authored.”
The report also says that there isn’t much transparency. Personally, I think that there is a lot less internet freedom these days than when there was 5 years ago in Jordan. To me, it is not just the official channels though, it’s also society at large, which most Western-based reports do not take into consideration.
It’s an interesting report, although it seems to be slightly outdated when it comes to dates and figures, and you can read it all here.
angrynight
April 19, 2008 @ 11:56 am
I believe your suspicions are true. I visit Jordan once a year almost and every time I come it seems things have ratcheted up a notch or two since my last visit. My cousins who live there confirm it’s not just me, all so I can confirm it’s not just you.
I can barely remember, did things get noticeably worse after nine-eleven? I can’t remember Jordan all that well, I was in Abu Dhabi at the time.
Amino
April 19, 2008 @ 2:59 pm
Figures are def outdated. It has to do with awareness, when people are not aware, self-censorship is not practiced. Back when blogs were a “mystery” to most people I talked to, everyone wrote whatever is on his mind, knowing that “Sirro b beir!”
Tarik
April 20, 2008 @ 7:57 am
Well I still have restrictions when trying to search Google, AltaVista or Yahoo - even though ‘Safe Search’ & ‘Family Filters’ are off, this has happened (obviously) after all servers started to go though local ‘filters’. It’s been going on for almost 6 months now.
Still there are always ways to go around them ;) just Google for the answers - I guess the-powers-that-be were too busy to filter that out!
Ali
April 20, 2008 @ 1:25 pm
Now do we want to become the other saudi arabia when it comes to internet ? , It’s good that they allow facebook there !!.
Engstrom
April 24, 2008 @ 12:41 am
With the most recent escalation of tensions between restrictive governments and citizens, especially with the situation in Tibet and heavyily-censores areas in the Middle East, it is important to notice the need for people to obtain information. All sorts of media outlets, whether foreign or domestic, are being suppressed or even completely banned, so that only select information can be given out. It is almost becoming a necessity to use modern technology to circumvent government censors. While doing some research, the use of proxies stood out as the preferred method to avoid censors. Proxies should be used as a method to hide IP addresses and ultimately encrypt the flow of data being sent through a network so that users can freely exchange information without governmental restrictions or fear of punishment. This recent
press release shows some different censorship issues and ways to help circumvent unneccesary borders.