No news is good news? Not for newspapers in Ramadan, journalists say

AMMAN — Filling newspapers and media outlets with news is an uphill battle during Ramadan, according to journalists, who say the situation gets worse in the last week of the Muslim holy month. 

Institutions in the public and the private sectors, as well as civil society organisations, tend not to hold any media events, conferences or workshops in Ramadan, which exacerbates the problem, journalists say. 

To overcome this obstacle, reporters say they focus more on feature stories or analyses, which can also be difficult as many sources are unwilling to speak during the fasting month. 

“No officials and no sources want to give any information in Ramadan. Our job becomes very difficult as everybody wants to make announcements after Ramadan,” Norma Nemat, Al Hayat correspondent in Jordan, told The Jordan Times on Sunday.

According to Nemat, laziness is prevalent among officials and institutions in various sectors in Ramadan.

“I resort to doing feature stories or analysis, but that is not an easy task... Another reason why getting news is difficult is because the working hours are very short in Ramadan and in the last week of the month the situation just becomes more and more difficult,” Nemat added.

The public sector’s working hours during Ramadan are between 10am and 3pm.

Omar Maharmeh, a local news editor at Ad-Dustour Arabic daily, said public and private sector institutions tend to delay the announcement of any news until after Ramadan as they want to ensure the most publicity.

“They think readers do not follow closely what is published in media outlets; this is why you do not see many events in Ramadan for the media,” Maharmeh said. 

“At the end of Ramadan, there is literally nothing to publish or cover that is of great news value,” he told The Jordan Times.

Reporters focus on doing light stories and features to fill the pages, he added.

Haidar Gammaz, a journalist at Al Rai daily, agreed.

“No one likes to speak to media outlets in Ramadan. There is laziness in general and low productivity, and journalists themselves tend to have lower productivity levels in Ramadan,” said Gammaz.

“Even readers do not really seem to be interested in news anymore during Ramadan. They are interested in news related to the holy month — prices and religious stuff and that’s what the press tries to focus on to attract readers,” he added.

Gammaz said the content of media outlets in Ramadan is usually very light and rarely contains news of serious developments or big announcements.

Basel Okour, the chief editor of jo24.net news website, blamed officials for not providing information to media outlets. 

“There is less interest by readers and viewers in news; at the same time… journalists also have less energy to look for information and seek alternative sources as they do in other months of the year,” Okour added.