Jordan Press Foundation

The Jordan Press Foundation (JPF) is a Jordanian public shareholding company that publishes Al Ra’i, the highest-circulation Arabic-language newspaper in Jordan and a widely regarded newspaper of record, and The Jordan Times, the country’s principal English-language daily. The Jordan Press Foundation was created under Law No. 26 of 1971 issued by then Prime Minister Wasfi al-Tal, with Al Ra’i established by Cabinet decision on 18 May 1971 and its first issue published on 2 June 1971; The Jordan Times has been published by JPF since 26 October 1975, and the Foundation is listed on the Amman Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol PRES.

Media assets

Publishing: Al Ra’i, The Jordan Times

Ownership and governance

The Jordan Press Foundation was created under Law No. 26 of 1971 issued by then Prime Minister Wasfi al-Tal, with Al Ra’i established by Cabinet decision on 18 May 1971 and its first issue published on 2 June 1971 as a vehicle for transmitting the Jordanian government’s perspective in the aftermath of the June 1967 war and the loss of Jordanian control over the West Bank. The Foundation operates as a public shareholding company listed on the Amman Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol PRES, with corporate governance structures including shareholder ownership, a supervisory Board of Directors and an executive management team appointed by the Board. The state-owned Social Security Investment Fund, the investment arm of the Social Security Corporation, holds around 55 per cent of the Jordan Press Foundation; the remaining shares are held by public, institutional and minority investors, and the SMM review did not rely on any minority shareholder as a controlling actor.

Current leadership comprises Samih Maaitah as Chairman of the Board, Hasan Jazzazi as Director General, Dr Khalid Al Shaqran as Editor-in-Chief of Al Ra’i, and Raed Omari as Editor-in-Chief of The Jordan Times, per the Jordan Times and Al Ra’i “About Us” institutional disclosures reviewed by SMM during the cycle. Hasan Jazzazi was appointed Director General on 10 November 2025, succeeding Hiyam Karaki, who became Advisor to the Board; Karaki had served as General Manager from July 2024 until November 2025.

Source of funding and budget

JPF publishes corporate disclosures as a listed shareholding company, but the SMM review did not identify cycle-specific public financial information separating government advertising, public-institution subscriptions and commercial revenue in a way that would resolve the degree of state-derived operating support. The Foundation reported revenues of approximately JOD 8.5 million (US$12 million) in 2019, falling sharply to JOD 4.6 million (US$6.6 million) in 2020 with a substantial loss of approximately JOD 7.6 million recorded in the same year. PitchBook reported trailing twelve-month revenues of approximately US$8.1 million (approximately JOD 5.7 million) for the period ending 31 December 2023.

Beyond its majority state shareholding through the Social Security Investment Fund, the Jordan Press Foundation continues to depend on government advertising contracts and public-institution subscriptions for operating cash flow. Journalists and sector experts consulted by SMM for prior cycles have characterised Al Ra’i as among the largest single beneficiaries of state-sponsored advertising in Jordan, with government contracts allocated through official institutions and ministries playing a critical role in the publisher’s continued operation. Given the corporate-disclosure breakdown limitations described above, the SMM 2025/26 review could not conclusively determine whether state advertising and public-institution subscriptions together constitute more than half of the Foundation’s annual operating revenue.

Editorial independence

The editorial output of the Jordan Press Foundation has continued through the 2025/26 cycle to reflect a long-standing alignment with the Jordanian state. Al Ra’i is widely characterised as a pro-government outlet and a de facto state newspaper of record, with editorial content consistently emphasising official Jordanian government statements, Royal Family activities and narratives supportive of state policy, while producing little critical or investigative reporting on domestic political authority. The Jordan Times has historically been positioned as a more independent English-language alternative; a content analysis of Jordan Times reporting during January, February and March 2024 conducted by the Media and Journalism Research Center (MJRC) identified overt editorial bias in favour of the Royal House, raising substantive doubt about the degree of editorial autonomy The Jordan Times exercises in practice on issues involving political power or governance.

No statute in Jordanian law guarantees the editorial independence of the Jordan Press Foundation or its publications, and no independent oversight body exists to assess editorial standards or prevent political interference at the Foundation. SMM-retained expert sources and Jordanian journalists have described senior editorial appointments at state-aligned Jordanian newspapers, including the Jordan Press Foundation publications, as subject to security and political vetting, with the Foundation’s working environment characterised by institutional caution and increasing self-censorship. The wider Jordanian press-freedom environment during the cycle has continued under the 2023 Cybercrime Law, which has been used against Jordanian journalists and commentators including Hiba Abu Taha (under the 2023 law) and Ahmad Hassan al-Zoubi (under earlier cybercrime provisions), and the May 2025 blocking of twelve online news outlets including Voice of Jordan, Raseef22 and Middle East Eye documented by Freedom House.

AI and digital policy

The Jordan Press Foundation has not published a public-facing institutional AI policy. Jordan’s national digital-policy work is pursued primarily through the Ministry of Digital Economy and Entrepreneurship, with policy emphasis on infrastructure development, e-government services and AI ecosystem-building rather than a newspaper-publishing-specific generative-AI framework. The Foundation pursued limited digital-transformation activity during the cycle, including a February 2025 partnership agreement with Orange Jordan to support digital-platform development at Al Ra’i, but no public-sector generative-AI framework specific to JPF was identified during the 2025/26 review.

Classification rationale

The Jordan Press Foundation (Al Ra’i, The Jordan Times) remains classified as Captured Public (CaPu) for the 2026 cycle. The Foundation is a Jordanian public shareholding company listed on the Amman Stock Exchange with the state-owned Social Security Investment Fund holding around 55 per cent of shares, and current leadership comprises Samih Maaitah as Chairman of the Board, Hasan Jazzazi as Director General (appointed 10 November 2025 succeeding Hiyam Karaki), Dr Khalid Al Shaqran as Editor-in-Chief of Al Ra’i and Raed Omari as Editor-in-Chief of The Jordan Times. The Foundation has no statutory editorial firewall, SMM/MJRC content review found pro-government editorial alignment across its principal publications including overt Royal House bias in The Jordan Times during the early-2024 sampling window, and the Foundation remains exposed to state and political-economic influence through government advertising contracts and public-institution subscriptions according to SMM-retained expert sources. The 2025/26 cycle produced no governance, ownership, funding or editorial reform sufficient to move JPF out of the CaPu category.

June 2026