I can’t believe I missed this. I’m glad Abu Aardvark picked it up:
Aljazeera reported that the editor-in-chief of the Jordanian newspaper
al Ghad, Imad al Hmoud, was fired by the paper’s administrative
council in light of the of al-Hilla bombing controversy.
Abu Aardvark also indicated that the section editor in which the
controversial story appeared had already resigned before this announcement. Ayman al Safadi, the former editor-in chief of the Jordan Times, then head of Jordan TV and most recently Jordan’s UN spokesman in Iraq, will replace Hmoud as al-Ghad’s editorial head.
The most fascinating part of any analysis of this whole scandal is how long gone the days are when Jordanian/Arab media could get away with publishing irresponsible material. Nowadays, everybody is watching!
I guess this is considered Good News.
Wait a minute. There are two issues at hand here. If the reporter reported a lie because he decided to make it up himself or because this is what he heard from other reports, he then should be fired for liening, or the paper should only write a an apology about their report and report on the fact that the the celebration really did not take place.
Now the other issue , which is surprising me is if the reporter wrote the story in a way that makes the bomber look like a hero, then that’s tha paper’s business. now im not saying that’s good good journalism or im supporting what the reporter wrote. but come on, i am so sure there are other newspapers in Jordan and there are many here in the states, that write stories in a way that very much express the opinions of the reporter or of the staff. now this is wrong, but it happens, and if the king is going to get involved, then he better checkout every other newspaper in his kingdom and make sure opinions are not leaking into the news.
Amal, what’s your point? I don’t get it. Why should a higher authority interfere in the matters of the media unless they cause a major national scandal. In the best case scenario, the media is on its own.
I didn’t doubt that the family threw a “martyr wedding”. My point was that the way the paper reported the story was inflammatory. They wrote it in a way that that portrayed the bomber as a hero. The editor who allowed this should be fired with or without al-moukhabart’s intervention. If I was the publisher of this paper, I won’t hesistate for a second to fire the editor and the section editor for allowing this. Firing and “clamping down” was more than necessary in this case as this issue turned into a national scandal and fueled those who had their own anti-Jordan agendas against Jordan to attack the Kingdom.
Frankly, I’m glad that the paper was reproached by a higher authority. This will set an example. I hate to say this Amal, but sometimes this is the only way things should be handled in this volatile region.
That’s interesting new info Amal. I do understand that the journalist and the paper said his motivation came from the family’s advert for his martyrdom. But the fact that Al Hurra has video is a curious new wrinkle for two obvious reasons. 1) It provides visual evidence that this activity did in fact occur. The family changed their tune after the story — and the crisis — broke out, saying they just had a little gathering, no big celebration about martyrdom. If this video is factual, if it is accurate, that would now appear to clearly be a lie the family is telling. The reasons and motivation for that lie seems pretty clear.
2) Is that video, though, real. Without having seen it or having access to it I’d call it suspect. And the fact that Al Hurra, of all places, has got it seems really odd. Why that outlet versus any of the other majors. It sounds similar to the rumor circulated by an Aljazeera guest that the king had come to pay his respects to the family — something which is an utter falsehood just made up to inflame the situation. So the question is: “Does the video exist?” If it does, it could answer some questions and lay to rest some of the spin on this story. If it becomes difficult to verify, then I’d suggest it might be another rumor, like the king visit, meant to keep this story alive to keep things tense between Iraq and Jordan. I have a feeling it’s a rumor for one simple reason.
If any other news outlet had the video, Aljazeera or Al Arabiya for example, well this kind of rumor would catch the ear of an intrepid reporter or producer and the video would make its way back on air. But that’s likely not the case with al-Hurra. This station is really not even based in the ME, where such rumors would find their way to the right ears. And better still for this kind of rumor, because Hurra is US-based, if the channel fails to produce the video people can say: “Oh, it’s because it’s the US and they are friends with Jordan so they don’t want to do something that would harm their friend.” That kind of story is an easy sell in the region. Al Hurra makes the best patsy. They’d likely never re-air the video. The don’t have the connections that’d even spark them to do so. And because of their affiliation the fact that they don’t can be seen as part of some US-Jordan conspiracy.
So I think Al Hurra was chosen specifically in this case because it makes this rumor hard to disprove. I do think this family had a martyr’s wedding just as the reporter wrote. I think they changed their tune about it though. I’d like to find proof of that but I think as this situation grew more and more inflamed that proof became harder and harder to find.
did any one see the video? is there a video? is there a video that shows a celebration going on? because the only pictures i have seen were two still ones of the suicide bomber and a few men from his family sitting at a gathering but they didnt look like they were celebrating. they looked mad in those pictures. if there is a video and someone has seen it and there shows a celebration, please tell us.
Natasha,
Whatever way Hurra picked up the story does not matter-the fact is they filmed the guy’s family throwing a party for their son’s ‘martyrom’. The Jordanian mukhabarat then tells them to clamp up and then the newspaper gets its staff canned or jailed. Would the intelligence have gotten involved if it didn’t smear Amman’s image? I doubt it.
Well, Amal I’m not sure this is true.
According to the New York Times article, the reporter got the idea for the story from a an obituary that the family published in Al ghad calling the death of their son “wedding of a martyr”.
As far as I know al hurra picked up the story from Alghad’s report, not the other way around.
Oops, there seems to be some aspects of this story that we didn’t read about.
Apparently, the jailed journalist wrote his story after seeing a video aired on al-Hurra showing the suspected bomber’s family actually celebrating their son’s ‘martyr wedding’. This tape also got into the hands of people at a local Iraq station who repeatedly aired it. When the story broke, the Jordanian mukhabarat apparently warned the family to clamp up and deny their son’s involvement.
I got this from a colleague of mine at Aljazeera who dedicated an entire show last week to the issue. Why is it that no one reported about the tape?
Yeah! Glad the people at al-Ghad had the courage to fire the idiot who inflamed political tensions between two countries.
A step in the right direction. I wish one day, that all who write, support and stirr up such despicable acts would realize the evil in what they think and write. This incident, or the way it was reported, created political tension between two countries. What if Israeli’s, Americans, Palastenians, and every nation that was hit by those suicide bombers and their alikes would rise up and create similar tensions and pressures to disclose the transmission of such poisonous thoughts of evil expressed in such media ! More resignations ? Terminations ? Layoffs ? It is said that in wars and conflicts, the first victim is the truth, and that is absolutely true. But the truth will one day prevail; and the truth will set people free from their bondage to evil.