A Sad Day For Online Free Speech In Jordan

A Sad Day For Online Free Speech In Jordan

I don’t know anymore. I would say it’s a sad day, but I can’t remember one that wasn’t. Long story short, the Jordanian government is going on, what can best be described as, an anti-online free speech jihad. A decision has been made to monitor websites (most likely including the rising popularity of blogs) and to keep them in check with the country’s notorious press and publication laws. This is the legacy that the Prime Minister Bakhit will be leaving behind.


Khalaf is right. To think, this particular government went from having its opening song be “let freedom ring” to a swan song that begs for no encore to follow.


In the weeks that followed the Amman bombings there was this whole new and promising environment, most likely as a response to the fear of social discontent following such a tragedy. Ironically, not only have those promises of new freedoms been broken, but the situation has actually worsened. See, the government firmly believes that by silencing people, everyone will be happy. It’s about the same as clamping down on a pressure cooker to silence the steam whistle that is just going berserk.


So what do we do?


One idea is to create a website that monitors the government’s actions online. Monitoring the monitors.


Big Brother Watches?


Little Brother Watches Back.