Repression in Jordan

King Hussein of Jordan is regarded as a good friend of the United States, but that doesn’t change the fact that he runs a very tough regime where independent political expression is sure to invite official notice and trouble. Like Britain, the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan defines itself as a constitutional monarchy. Unlike Britain, its monarch is closer to being a dictator than a figurehead, while such constitutionalism as may exist stops well short of encouraging open and free debate. Jordan, in fact, can be accurately described as a tightly controlled and at times even repressive society. For calling it just that, Rick Davis, the NBC correspondent in Amman, has been ordered to leave the country.

Davis, one of the few American reporters resident in Jordan, has been accused of making reports “clearly against the country” and of “breaking the ethics of reporting” by complaining about officials at the security and information ministries. The long and short of these accusations is that Davis reported things that the regime, meaning Hussein, didn’t like. Sensitivity to criticism is of course nothing new in Jordan; the domestic press must toe the line, and all political parties have been banned for more than 30 years. Still, the sensitivity shown in this case does imply a certain degree of embarrassment before the world about the nature of the country’s political culture. Jordan didn’t like being called repressive. The expulsion of Rick Davis can be taken as validating the accuracy of the charge.