The right to write freely

The dismissal of the case against the chief editor of the Arab daily Al Ghad is a partial victory for freedom of the press.

The prosecutor general dropped charges against Jumana Ghneimat for publishing an opinion article in September, criticising some members of the Lower House of Parliament who, she said, “claim to be fighting corruption, while they are deeply involved in corruption”.

Ghneimat was initially summoned on charges of violating articles 5 and 7 of the Press and Publications Law.

The law, specifically the two articles mentioned above, have provisions that give wide discretion to authorities to bring charges.

Article 5 calls for refraining “from violating anything that is in conflict with the principles of freedom, national responsibility, human rights and values of the Islamic and Arab nation”.

These guidelines are simply too broad and their vagueness can easily give rise to litigation.

What exactly are the parameters of freedom or of national responsibility?

And who is going to spell for the courts the full import of human rights?

Are we talking about rights as stipulated in the Constitution or as laid down in international legislation that is binding on the country by virtue of having adopted it, but with which our court system may be less familiar?

And how are Arab and Islamic values different from universal human values?

Article 7 essentially calls for “balance, objectivity and honesty”, which is absolutely acceptable. These are attributes no reporter should forsake when writing.

But it is up to the reader to decide whether a published item is objective and honest, once the balance is attained by taking the two sides of the story.

Journalists should enjoy freedom of opinion.

The dismissal of this case could be viewed as a victory for the right to express freely one’s opinion, but the legislation on the basis of which journalists could be sent to courts needs a thorough review before it can provide a sound basis for judgement.

That said, it should also be clear that freedom of opinion cannot come without accountability or without solid basis and argumentation.

With freedom comes responsibility, and all people — journalists or not — need to know that.

Still, muzzling free speech cannot conceal the truth.