The National Endowment for Democracy (NED) provides necessary support to the Research Unit at the Center for Protection and Freedom of Journalists to ensure its continuity, enhance the skills of its staff, and strengthen their capabilities. This support focuses particularly on monitoring and documenting violations of media freedom and the rights of journalists in Jordan and the Arab world, as well as producing reports, studies, and research related to freedom of expression and media.
The Center for Protection and Freedom of Journalists began developing a national index in 2020 to measure the state of press freedom in Jordan. Researchers designed the index questionnaire based on international standards governing press freedom and expression, as well as the outcomes of brainstorming sessions with journalists, human rights advocates, and experts. This was in addition to the accumulated experience of the Center from issuing the “State of Media Freedoms in Jordan” report since 2001.
The “Press Freedom Index in Jordan” covered six sections, five of which were fixed: the political environment, the legislative environment, the right to access information, violations and protection of journalists, and media independence. The sixth section was variable and addressed an urgent or pressing issue emerging in the year of the index.
In 2021, “Protection of Journalists” organized brainstorming sessions with experts, human rights advocates, and journalists. Additionally, the index questionnaire was sent to 20 experts, journalists, and human rights advocates at the local and Arab levels. After evaluating the opinions and recommendations, the index adopted “Internet Freedom and Freedom of Expression and Media on the Internet and Social Media Platforms” as the sixth section, replacing “Press Freedom During the COVID-19 Pandemic.”
Following methodological and scientific reviews of the index questions across all sections, researchers adopted 60 questions in the 2021 index, up from 57 in 2020. Consequently, the maximum value of the index increased to 600 points from 570.
To ensure more accurate results, “Protection of Journalists” improved the mechanisms for completing the index questionnaire. They employed two methods: direct completion by journalists through a link provided on “Google Forms” and telephone interviews conducted with a selected sample by specialized researchers in survey administration.