2019 Theses Master's

The Press as a Pawn: An In-Depth Study of the Impact of the 2011 Arab Uprisings on Press Freedom Restrictions in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan

Beiter, Katie

This study researches and documents the impact of the 2011 Arab Uprisings on press freedom restrictions in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. Since inception, the Kingdom has vacillated between liberalization and deliberalization, which is seen, most evidently, in its relationship with the press. It is imperative to look at the history of the relationship between the government and the media in Jordan in order to understand the political, social, cultural, and economic conditions under which the media may or may not have developed in the Kingdom. In Jordan, there is a direct correlation between the sharp curtailment of press freedoms and national crises. The media has, and continues to be, infected by governmental control and, therefore, becomes an unwitting ally in the regime’s quest to protect the existing state of affairs.