Jordan

The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan is a constitutional monarchy under King Abdullah II, with executive authority exercised through a Cabinet headed by Prime Minister Jafar Hassan, whose government was approved and sworn in on 18 September 2024 following his 15 September 2024 designation as Prime Minister. The September 2024 parliamentary elections returned a Lower House of Representatives in which the Islamic Action Front emerged as the largest opposition bloc with 31 of 138 seats, and the August 2025 cabinet reshuffle did not affect the Government Communication or Interior portfolios, held respectively by Mohammad Momani and Mazen Farraya. The 2025/26 cycle was shaped by a markedly elevated public profile for the Jordanian Armed Forces: the reactivation of the National Service Programme was announced by Crown Prince Al Hussein bin Abdullah II and detailed by Brig. Gen. Mustafa Hiyari with the government spokesperson on 18 August 2025; the first 2026 training phase began on 1 February 2026 with 6,000 recruits born in 2007; and Jordanian air-defence interceptions over Jordanian airspace took place during the 2026 Iran-Israel/US regional escalation.

Media environment

Jordan’s media environment remained highly restrictive during the 2025/26 cycle despite a modest improvement in its 2026 World Press Freedom Index ranking, with Reporters Without Borders placing Jordan 142nd of 180 countries with a score of 39.33, up from 147th and 35.25 in 2025. The 2023 Cybercrime Law remained in force and was used in cases involving Jordanian journalists and commentators including Hiba Abu Taha, with cases under the 2023 Cybercrime Law, and Ahmad Hassan al-Zoubi, who was imprisoned in a cybercrime case linked to a 2022 social-media post and released in January 2025. Freedom House documented the May 2025 blocking of twelve online news outlets including Voice of Jordan, Raseef22 and Middle East Eye, while press-freedom monitors continue to identify self-censorship around the security establishment, royal institutions, religion and other sensitive political topics as a structural feature of the Jordanian media environment. Jordan’s national digital-policy framework is led by the Ministry of Digital Economy and Entrepreneurship and includes the National AI Strategy and Implementation Plan 2023-2027 and the Digital Transformation Strategy 2026-2028, but no media-specific generative-AI governance framework was identified during the cycle.

State media mapped by SMM

The 2026 SMM dataset for Jordan covers seven SMM-mapped media entities across the State-Controlled (SC) and Captured Public (CaPu) categories of the State Media Matrix typology. Three SC entities anchor the principal state broadcasting and news-agency architecture: the Jordan Radio and Television Corporation, established under Law No. 35 of 2000; Al-Mamlaka TV, established under Regulation No. 53 of 2015, with its Board appointed by Royal Decree; and the Jordan News Agency (Petra), operating under Jordan News Agency Law No. 11 of 2009, with a Board chaired by Minister of Government Communication Mohammad Momani and a 2026 General Budget Department allocation of approximately JOD 3.435 million. Four CaPu entities exhibit structurally distinct architectures within a single country cluster: Jordan Press & Publishing Company (Ad-Dustour), under indirect Social Security-linked Rama Investment shareholding; Jordan Press Foundation (Al Ra’i, The Jordan Times), under direct Social Security Investment Fund majority shareholding of around 55 per cent; Al Raya Media Group, affiliated with the Jordanian Armed Forces-Arab Army and operating within the JAF military-media structure headed by the Military Media Directorate, formerly the Moral Guidance Department; and Amen FM (Public Security Radio), under the Public Security Directorate of the Ministry of Interior. No SMM-tracked Jordan entity underwent a classification change during the 2025/26 cycle.

Media profiles