Jordanian television presenter resigns due to state interventions
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The Jordanian broadcaster, Mohammed Habashneh, has confirmed that he resigned from his post at the Jordanian television channel, ‘Roya’, due to what he called an “state intervention” in his work, that forced him to cancel a an episode hosting a member of the opposition party, Leith Shbeilat , in his show (Nabd Elbalad), “the pulse of the country. “
Habashneh said that he was shocked last Sunday, when he was requested by the management to cancel the appearance of his guest, after he finished the preparation for the episode, especially when the management had full knowledge of the guest’s name in advance. He claims he was requested to cancel the chief guest, Shbeilat, due to security interventions.
Habashneh said that he believes, hosting a member of the opposition through a Jordanian television station and offering him the chance to say what he wants to say in an objective way is more effective than substantive restrictions upon the guest, where he will end up ‘the guest’ resorting to other Arab and foreign television channels.
Roya which means Vision … is a new satellite channel was launched from Amman in Jordan on the 1st January 2011 as part of the Sayegh Group, which broadcasts from Dubai.
Following the publication of this news by local Jordanian news agencey AmmonNews, the management of Roya channel published a reply stating that:
Dr. Habashneh is not a staff member in Roya channel, but he has a contract to provide the channel with two episodes per week for the “pulse of the country.” Show. Habashneh suggested hosting Mr. Leith Shbeilat to speak about the return of the Palestinian refugees and the ongoing developments in the Arab region, but the manager of the Channel had no knowledge of those arrangements, he requested of Dr. Habashneh to contact the guest and to postpone the interview to next Tuesday, to host other guests along with Mr. Shbeilat, due to the importance of the subject raised. The management claims that the administration learned indirectly from Dr. Habashneh that Mr. Leith requested to appear alone in the program and that he will not abide to the axes discussed earlier and agreed upon for the Sunday show, and that Dr. Habashneh apologized for not being able to work on the show due to his busy schedule, and that he expressed his willingness to cooperate with the channel by presenting another show that broadcasts one episode per week, and that his proposal was agreed on in principle, but the details will be discussed later.