Blogs are not Blocked in Jordan - Minister

Jordanian Internet users are facing some problems accessing blogspot blogs.

(CC-BY Lordcolus)

Well-known blogger Osama Romoh reported on a recent post that Blogger.com and its hosted blogs are not accessible anymore in the kingdom. Clients of major ISPs, namely Orange, WiTribe and Zain all have issues when trying to visit blogspost sites.

The Jordanian Twittersphere is full of similar stories starting from yesterday. It should be mentioned that the sites seem accessible and without any major problems from other Jordan-based visitors. The blogs were available for public employees in governmental agencies as well.

Minister of Information and Communication Technology, Marwan Juma, stated that the government is not blocking any website and the main reasons behind unavailability of some blogs are pure technical problems. The minister asked some additional details to be provided in order to address the problem right away.

Unavailability of such services is to be considered critical anyway, and major steps should be taken by the ministry and the Telecommunications Regulatory Commission (TRC) to investigate why several ISPs are blocking the websites.

After the new -temporary- Cybercrimes Law has been approved, doubts about government's intentions of freedom of Internet and "Open Web" have arisen from Jordanians internet users, bloggers and electronic media, as well as international press-freedom NGOs.