Al Anbat Under Attack
Written by Haitham Sabbah on 29. September 2005, 1505hrs // Part of Haitham Sabbah's adventure in Jordan, Media, Sabbah // Other posts by Haitham Sabbah
Honestly, I never heard of the Jordanian - Al Anbat daily newspaper (Arabic) before. Howevere, while going through Jordan Times online edition, I read that Al Anbat was attacked by anonymous assailants yesterday.
An investigation is currently under way by the security services into a complaint by Al Anbat daily newspaper that it was attacked by anonymous assailants yesterday, a government official said on Wednesday. Al Anbat said on Wednesday that it was attacked by three anonymous masked assailants. Al Rai reported that the assailants broke into the newspaper’s information office and handcuffed and assaulted the night guard. The source said the outcome of the probe would be announced as soon as it is completed.
Now this is worrying. According to media records, this is the first attack of it’s kind on any Jordanian newspaper since 10 years. I hope we are not facing a new form of individual or organized suppression of freedom of expression and media freedom in Jordan. Keeping in mind that Jordan was selected to host the Global Forum for Media Development (GFMD), supported by UNESCO, where over 300 media professionals from all over the world will gather on 1-3 October 2005 in Amman, Jordan, to discuss challenges and opportunities facing the media development sector.
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September 29th, 2005 at 6:56 pm
The report alleges that that attack was directed against the newspaper ! The question that I’m asking is : How does one attack a newspaper ? Do you hold it up in the air and start throwing punches at it ? Do you pick it up and tear it into shreds and then scatter the tattered shreds on the floor ? Do you pick some issues and slash them with scissors, or serrate them with knives, or slice it with razor blades? Do you throw it on the floor and stomp on it, and do the twist dance over its pages? This whole report is dubious? It is weird ! It sound obnoxious! Why would some one furtively sneak into a newspaper building and tie up a security guard, unless the security guard was some how was involved in flirting with one of the assailants wives, sisters, or daughters.! I honestly don’t know what to make it of it. The paper is fairly new one, it hasn’t been on the market for that long, and it couldn’t have offended some one to the point where he wants to do a reckless & illegal act such as the one described in the repot. ! It could be that the paper isn’t doing too well and is trying to pull a fast publicity stunt and that is why it orchestrated the alleged attack, it could be a personal vendetta between the publisher and some of his old clients. I know for a fact that it isn’t a random robbery attempt, it isn’t a hold up because there is no cash to be taken out of there, and it couldn’t have been an attempted honor crime, unless of course there are some gays working amongst the staff. It would be interesting to see how this attack will pan out when the police is done with their investigation. I remember a few years ago the owner of a Jordanian weekly paper got beaten by a group of assailants but Mr. Hroob is a respectable;le well known business man and he couldn’t have been the target.Oh well, time will tell.
September 29th, 2005 at 7:55 pm
Please keep in mind that some of us might actually do these things just to see the response
September 29th, 2005 at 10:35 pm
hatem, I hope it’s only what you said.
September 30th, 2005 at 10:50 am
I think it was a casual robbery nothing more.
October 2nd, 2005 at 4:53 pm
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April 24th, 2006 at 7:01 pm
[...] eech in Jordan. Haitham Sabbah posts about an attack on Jordanian daily newspaper Al-Anbat then says that this is worrying and hopes that ” we are not facing a new fo [...]