Islamist media is reporting that a Jordanian television station close to the Muslim Brotherhood has been prevented from broadcasting by the Jordanian government. According to the Middle East Monitor report, the closure is likely related to the legal dispute between the Jordanian Brotherhood and a new splinter group supported by the government:
September 1, 2015 Jordan’s Al-Yarmou television channel, based in Amman, said on Monday that the Jordanian authorities had stopped it from broadcasting, Quds Press has reported.
According to a statement released by the channel, the government’s Information Committee went to the studios of the channel without forewarning and closed them.
The channel, which is close to the Muslim Brotherhood, expressed its shock at the government’s ‘surprising measures’, reiterating that it had obtained all the required licenses for its work.
The studios that were closed are all privately owned and were simply hired out by the channel.
Al-Yarmouk said that it considers its closure as part of the Jordanian government’s attempts to ‘supress media freedom’. It also stressed that it had respected all the laws and systems in the country regarding the work of mass media.
It is believed that the closure of the channel is part of a complicated legal dispute between the Muslim Brotherhood and a new NGO holding the same name, through which the new NGO is to take over the property of the original group.
The GMBDW reported in March that the Jordanian government planned to re-designate a Jordanian Muslim Brotherhood splinter group known as the “Zamzam Initiative” as independent from the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood parent organization. We reported shortly thereafter that a Muslim Brotherhood leader in exile had issued a statement disavowing the Jordanian Muslim Brotherhood splinter group. We reported last month that the Jordanian Brotherhood is seeking legal action to recover assets transferred to a what is likely the Zamzan group.
In March 2014, the GMBDW discussed an article in a UAE newspaper suggesting that the Muslim Brotherhood in Jordan was facing an increasingly deteriorating situation and in July 2103, Jordanian media reported that the Jordanian Brotherhood was “in shock” over the deposition of Egyptian. Other recent developments of interest have included:
- In April 2014, the GMBDW reported that that the Jordanian Muslim Brotherhood had expelled three senior members for trying to initiate reforms.
- In June 2014, we discussed an article that revealed internal conflicts within the Jordanian Brotherhood.Muslim Brotherhood.
- In December 2014, we reported that the Jordanian government had arrested 21 Muslim Brotherhood members accused of smuggling weapons and money into the West Bank.
- In February we reported that the deputy head of the Muslim Brotherhood in Jordan had been sentenced to 18 months in prison for publicly criticizing the UAE.
For a history of extremist statements made in the past by the Jordanian Muslim Brotherhood, go here.
For an analysis of the relationship between the Jordanian Muslim Brotherhood and the government, go here.