Don’t ignore the importance of press freedom

Canada tends to take press freedom for granted. When you live in the first country to pass freedom of information legislation, it’s easy to forget why those laws were needed in the first place.

So let’s put a spotlight on the work of one brave journalist in Jordan, a country currently at No. 138 out of 182 countries on Reporters Without Borders’ Press Freedom Index, to show why press freedom matters — to all of us.

In Jordan, the list of “red-lined” no-go zones for critical coverage is long.

Topics considered officially off-limits include the Jordanian royal family, the transactions of border ports and bridges, anti-drug transactions, searches for missing persons, and some communications from the Ministry of Health related to communicable diseases and infectious diseases.

Up until 2014, the list also included honour killing — the practice of family members murdering one of their women who had been “interfered with” sexually, in order to restore the family’s “honour.”

Jordanian journalist Remaz Mussa decided to change that.

In May of 2014, Mussa attended a data journalism workshop run by the Canadian-based media development organization I lead, Journalists for Human Rights (JHR).

Top Canadian data journalist Leslie Young of Globalnews.ca had come with JHR to Amman, Jordan, to introduce data journalism concepts to the Arab world.

Mussa worked side by side with Young, taking her to the Mafraq camp for a report for Global news. Inspired by her work, he decided to conduct a data investigation on honour killing — never mind the risks he was running in doing so.

There is barely any available data in Jordan to help journalists with this subject. Up until then, most media outlets avoided the issue.

So Mussa reached out to affected families and NGOs. In particular, he worked with SIGI-Tadamon, an organization that supports female victims of honour crime, physical and psychological abuse. And he compiled and read decisions from hundreds of court cases. From them, he developed a series of infographics that showed how authorities have dealt with honour crimes in Jordan since 1995.

“I knew from the beginning that the preparation of the report will be very hard, especially with the lack of data,” said Mussa. “But I decided to do it.” His report showed the breadth, depth and scope of the issue.

When it came out, 11 other media outlets picked it up.

Mussa’s investigation helped connect the issue of honour killing to Article 308, a controversial Jordanian law that allowed rapists to avoid prosecution by marrying their victims.

This law left many Jordanian women who were raped with a terrible decision: marry their rapists, in order to save their family’s honour, or face the often lethal consequences of their family’s wrath.

The media coverage showed the realworld consequences of Article 308 — and Jordanians were horrified. A furious discussion in the Jordanian Parliament ensued.

Even Princess Basma, the sister of the late King Hussein, said it was up to the media to encourage a public discussion about this issue.

Last week — approximately three years after Mussa’s data project first came out — the Jordanian cabinet voted to repeal Article 308.

The vote still faces ratification by a conservative Parliament.

But the cabinet’s decision is a clear indicator of how far the society wants to go to make the situation better for women.

By putting this issue on the public agen- da in such a decisive way, Mussa’s efforts have gone a long way toward making Jordanian women safer.

It’s important to remember on World Press Freedom Day that such an outcome was by no means a foregone conclusion.

In Jordan, journalists habitually selfcensor. Covering a topic such as honour killing can inspire death threats.

As the 2017 Freedom House Report indicates, journalists are increasingly up against such challenges worldwide.

The report, which JHR contributed to, charts a worrying trend of global democratic decline.

Several societies, most notably the United States, have turned their backs on democratic decision-making in favour of putting public trust in authoritarian strongmen. Such regimes favour tight control over media and information.

In such a global context, press freedom rights must be continually fought for.

Yet Mussa’s work in Jordan also shows how society benefits when a smart, determined journalist pushes the limits.

When journalists are free to do their jobs, everyone benefits.

Jordanian journalist Remaz Mussa’s efforts have gone a long way toward making Jordanian women safer