Jordan's King Abdullah has approved legislation banning virtual private networks and restricting what people can say and publish on the internet.
The overwhelmingly pro-government legislature passed the law over the past month and it went to the king for formal approval.
Nidal Mansour, head of the Centre for Defending Freedom of Journalists, in Amman, had hoped that the king would have turned down the legislation because it widens "freedom-depriving" powers under the disposal of the authorities.
Mr Mansour said young people in Jordan could be falling foul of the vague law without knowing when they have violated it.
"It will strain the judiciary," said Mr Mansour.
The legislative branch in Jordan is overwhelmingly pro-government and the king holds most powers in the country. He rarely turns down legislation.
On July 26, a US State Department spokesman criticised the law as undermining freedom of expression in Jordan and having the potential to scare off investors
Prime Minister Bisher Al Khasawneh said this month that the law “does not touch or undermine the core" of freedoms mentioned in the constitution.
The new law criminalises the use of virtual private networks, or VPNs, which help internet users to bypass local restrictions and maintain anonymity online.
Those who spread “false news” that “undermines national unity” face jail terms between three months and three years. “Character assassination” through the internet has been labelled a crime, punishable by less than three months in jail and thousands of dollars in fines.
Internet users who “offend public morals” will receive at least nine months in jail.
Rights groups say Jordanian authorities have prosecuted or filed more than 2,000 cases against journalists, activists and dissidents in the past three years. TikTok and the debate application Clubhouse are blocked by Jordan, as well as Al Hudood, a Jordanian satirical publication in London that is styled after The Onion, a popular US satirical website.
Last week, Jordanian satirist Ahmad Al Zoubi was sentenced to one year in jail on charges of inciting sectarian strife, in connection with online remarks in support of truckers who went on strike in southern Jordan in December to protest fuel prices.
The truckers' strike escalated into riots in the area, which resulted in the killing of four police officers by men who the authorities described as religious extremists.
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
'Skin'
Dir: Guy Nattiv
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The Outsider
Stephen King, Penguin
Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
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Our legal consultant
Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
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