Amen FM

Amen FM (Arabic: إذاعة الأمن العام, “Public Security Radio”; the English transliteration “Amen” reflects the Arabic أمن, meaning “security”) is a radio station operated by the Public Security Directorate (PSD) of Jordan, with 89.5 MHz as its main Amman/Aqaba FM frequency and additional regional FM relay coverage across the Kingdom. The station is the principal broadcast outlet of the Jordanian national police, distributing programming that combines emergency-services communication and public-safety advisories with police-affiliated public-outreach content, supplemented by online and digital distribution channels including a satellite/TV relay (Jordan Amen TV) associated with the Public Security Radio.

Media assets

Radio: Amen FM / Public Security Radio (Arabic: إذاعة الأمن العام), with 89.5 MHz as its main Amman/Aqaba FM frequency and additional regional FM relay coverage

Ownership and governance

Amen FM is operated by the Public Security Directorate of Jordan, a civilian-police agency that reports to the Ministry of Interior, employs an estimated 40,000 to 50,000 personnel and has constituted Jordan’s principal national law-enforcement institution since the 1956 separation of public security from the Jordanian Armed Forces. The Director of Public Security, currently Major General Dr Obaidallah Maaytah (appointed by Royal Decree on 11 September 2022 and confirmed in post throughout the 2025/26 review period), exercises ultimate institutional authority over PSD media activities including Amen FM. Editorial and management decisions at Amen FM are attributed by SMM-retained expert sources and Jordanian media professionals consulted in March 2024 and February 2025 to PSD authorities operating within the police chain of command, with no civilian board, no independent oversight body and no statutory editorial firewall separating the station’s output from the police institution.

The 2025/26 cycle context for Amen FM governance was shaped by the ongoing implementation of the PSD’s 2024-2026 Strategic Plan, launched before the SMM review window and built around five institutional objectives: reducing crime, minimising drug abuse, enhancing traffic safety and road security, effectively responding to emergencies and disasters, and developing the Public Security system continuously. The Strategic Plan continued to be implemented by Major General Maaytah pursuant to Royal directives from King Abdullah II, and the SMM 2025/26 review identified no separate institutional reform that would have introduced civilian oversight or editorial-independence safeguards at Amen FM during the cycle. The wider political context for Amen FM governance during the cycle was shaped by the September 2024 parliamentary elections and the Hassan cabinet, which was approved and sworn in on 18 September 2024 following Jafar Hassan’s 15 September 2024 designation as Prime Minister, with Mazen Farraya serving as Minister of the Interior responsible for PSD oversight within the Hassan cabinet framework.

Source of funding and budget

Amen FM’s funding model remains non-transparent in public records. According to SMM-retained expert sources and Jordanian media professionals consulted in March 2024 and February 2025, the station depends predominantly on commercial advertising revenue, sponsorship arrangements and commercial partnerships organised through the PSD; however, Amen FM does not publish audited financial statements, and no standalone budget line for the station was identified in publicly disclosed Ministry of Interior or General Budget Department documentation reviewed by SMM during the 2025/26 cycle. The profile therefore describes the absence of a separately disclosed public budget line rather than presenting the absence of direct state funding as independently verified fact: direct or in-kind institutional support from the PSD cannot be excluded on the basis of public records alone, and the claim that commercial revenue is the station’s predominant source of funding should remain explicitly attributed to SMM-retained expert sources.

This commercial-advertising-dependent funding model, as reported by SMM-retained sources, is structurally rare among state-managed broadcasters, which typically rely on direct government subsidies; Amen FM’s reliance on advertising revenue should be understood as expert-sourced and reported through interviews rather than independently verified through audited public financial data. The 2025/26 cycle produced no structural funding reform: Amen FM continued to operate within the same expert-reported commercial-advertising-dependent funding architecture, with no shift toward audited public financial disclosure during the SMM review window.

Editorial independence

Amen FM’s editorial output throughout the 2025/26 cycle has continued to reflect the institutional priorities of the Public Security Directorate, with the station’s programming consistently aligned with official Jordanian state and security-apparatus messaging. According to SMM-retained expert sources and Jordanian journalists consulted during prior cycles, Amen FM’s content strategy prioritises public-order narratives, civic-obedience messaging, positive portrayals of police activity, road-safety advisories and emergency-services communication, with limited space for dissenting voices or critical questioning of state security institutions. The station’s editorial framework provides no structural mechanism for editorial independence from the PSD, and the 2025/26 cycle produced no documented reform of this editorial architecture.

No statute in Jordanian law guarantees the editorial independence of Amen FM, and no independent oversight body exists to assess editorial standards or prevent police-institutional interference at the station.

AI and digital policy

The PSD has continued to expand its institutional digital presence during the cycle, including the directorate’s main website and social-media platforms, but no published institutional generative-AI framework specific to Amen FM was identified.

Classification rationale

Amen FM remains classified as Captured Public (CaPu) for the 2026 cycle. The station operates directly under the institutional umbrella of the Jordanian Public Security Directorate, with editorial and management arrangements reported by SMM-retained expert sources to operate within the police chain of command and no independent civilian oversight, board structure or statutory editorial firewall identified during the review; the Director of Public Security, Major General Dr Obaidallah Maaytah (appointed by Royal Decree on 11 September 2022), exercises ultimate institutional authority over PSD media activities including Amen FM. Amen FM is differentiated from a purely State-Controlled model within the SMM typology by its expert-reported commercial-advertising-dependent funding architecture, with SMM-retained sources reporting predominant reliance on advertising, sponsorship arrangements and partnerships organised through the PSD, while no standalone public budget line or audited station-level financial disclosure was identified and direct or in-kind PSD institutional support cannot be excluded on the basis of public records alone. The 2025/26 cycle produced no governance, funding or editorial reform sufficient to move Amen FM out of the CaPu category: the station’s content strategy continued to prioritise public-order narratives, police-affiliated public-outreach messaging, road-safety advisories, emergency-services communication and civic-obedience themes aligned with the institutional priorities of the Public Security Directorate throughout the review period.

June 2026