Amman - Jordanian journalist Sumaya Al -Awamleh spent 13 years of age working in the Jordanian newspaper Al -Rai, and throughout those years the newspaper administration was not late to spend its monthly wage, but her condition changed during the past year and early this year.
Corona, the decline in commercial ads, the decrease in financial revenues for the newspaper, and the poor performance of successive departments, all of this caused a suffocating financial crisis that led to the delay in the payment of 7 months of wages, according to Al -Awamleh..
As for her colleague, photographer, the journalist, Osama Al -Aqar, 38, he lacked job safety after a 21 -year service in Al -Rai newspaper, the largest Jordanian newspapers, as he says to Al -Jazeera Net.
He adds that the problem of delaying salaries is exposing employees to "financial crises and problems in paying bank loans, and securing the requirements of the living family, and when I went out to claim my financial dues, I was searched and 6 of the colleagues from the work," he said..
Al -Rai newspaper, which was founded by the late Prime Minister Wasfi Al -Tal half a century ago suffering from debt exceeding 40 million dollars, in addition to the problems of securing the wages of the monthly workers, and the administration was late to deliver 7 months of wages that accumulated from last year 2021, and depriving them of the annual increases for several years, according to the drug.
Rolling
The crisis of paper newspapers in Jordan is not limited to the Al -Rai newspaper owned by 56% of the Social Security Corporation. The employees of the daily Al -Dustour newspaper are also suffering from a delay in disbursing their monthly wages, according to journalists there.
While the rest of the daily newspapers owned by the private sector suffer from "delay in salaries and deprivation of annual increases," according to the journalist in Al -Ghad newspaper, Mowaffaq Kamal.
During the past year, dozens of journalists and employees from the Al -Rai newspaper were laid off after handing over their late salaries and two additional salaries, according to journalists who submitted their resignations there, preceded by Al -Dustour newspaper and other daily newspapers..
While the year 2018 witnessed the closure of the "Al -Sabeel" newspapers affiliated with the Islamic opposition and the "Al -Diyar" their doors as a result of financial hardship, and the way turned into a news website..
corporate responsibility
The crisis of separating 6 journalists and employees from the newspaper Al -Rai last week after their protest against the delay in their salaries, was folded yesterday by canceling the decisions of the separation, according to the deputy captain of the Jordanian journalists, Jamal Shtaiwi.
But the paper newspapers crisis has been going on and has been exacerbated for years - Ashtaiwi adds to Al -Jazeera Net - and unfortunately "the parties concerned did not submit it," calling on the authorities of his country and newspaper boards of directors to "work seriously and long -term plans to achieve stability and continuing for paper newspapers".
The Journalists Syndicate addressed a memo to the government, which reached Al -Jazeera Net, a copy of it, in which it presented a number of solutions, most notably:
• Cancel taxes and fees on the inputs of newspaper production, such as papers, inks, parts, and others.
• The launch of a fund to support newspapers, and put newspapers on the programs of the Social Security Corporation until the end of this year, to contribute to these programs by securing the payment of employee wages.
• Giving priority in government publications to press institutions, and raising the value of the government advertisement to increase the financial revenues for newspapers.
According to journalists and owners of daily newspapers, the former Journalists Syndicate Council sided with the three major newspapers at the expense of the rest of the daily newspapers, which led to the closure of the Al -Sabeel and Al -Dayar newspapers, due to the deprivation of these newspapers of judicial advertisements, and the provision of these ads to the major newspapers, in an attempt to save them from their financial crisis.
Government financing
Government, Jordanian Prime Minister Bishr Al -Khasawneh announced that his government has provided and will provide the necessary and necessary support to paper newspapers, especially the opinion and constitution newspapers to get out of their financial crisis, within the limits of public spending allowed in accordance with the state budget law.
He continued - in press statements a few days ago - that the government is dealing with the issue of newspapers with private companies and not owned by the government, accusing previous departments of these newspapers of making "investment that was not successful, which reflected negatively on their financial performance"..
The number of Al -Khasawneh is a number of measures provided by the government to save these two newspapers, including:
• Landing of the late salaries for workers in the two newspapers after the extension of them in the "sustainability" program, and providing many motivational assistance, including sums of money to reporters.
• Delaying the payment of some of the benefits and fines incurred by them due to the delay in paying some subscriptions to government agencies, in addition to providing any possible financial support within the limits of the law.
However, the financial crisis in these institutions has reached the extent that the caution of the director of the general manager in the Al -Rai newspaper is being seized by a judicial order, pending financial lawsuits filed by writers in the newspaper.According to Al -Alawi.
digital media
Nabil Gishan describes a political analyst and editor -in -chief of a daily newspaper;The paper newspapers crisis in Jordan is that it is "a vehicle, starting from governments, through newspapers and boards of directors, to the change of readers’ trends. ".
Gishan adds to Al -Jazeera Net that the governments "control the paper newspapers, especially the newspaper Al -Rai and Al -Dustour, and control the size and quality of the information flowing through these newspapers to readers, with obscuring the facts and information they want, and silence the other opinion.".
As for the newspapers departments designated by the authorities, the majority of them are without experience and they have no knowledge of the importance of newspapers - and the conversation for Shishan - and they are seen as private companies, and did not achieve investments that generate financial income to secure newspapers expenses.
Gishan presented a number of solutions, most notably the stopping of government interference with the policy of liberation, the development of the press content of the reader, the delivery of newspapers departments to qualified personalities and possessing clear vision and plans, the operation of the commercial presses of these newspapers, the "archive" of job cadres, and the development of websites for these newspapers to keep pace with events first -hand.