Ammon News - AMMONNEWS - The Jordan Times (JT) editorial management informed Agence France Presse (AFP) Bureau Chief in Amman Randa Habib on Wednesday night that she has been suspended from writing in the English language daily newspaper.

The decision comes despite statements by The Jordan Times Editor-in-Chief Sameer Barhoum last week that Habib's weekly column has not been suspended.

Barhoum had told 'Ammon News' last week that Habib was not suspended from writing, but rather the decision concerns only one op-ed she had sent to be published in her weekly column 'Randa Habib's Corner,' and considered the decision "an internal matter."

On her part, Habib said that JT's Editor-in-Chief had called her and informed her that her weekly column, which had been published every Thursday for years, will no longer be published.

Habib stated that she has not been informed of the reasons behind suspending her weekly column.

Habib told Ammon News that she is surprised at JT's decision particularly at this time, expressing that she is against censoring any columnist from writing.

"It seems the newspaper's management was unable to announce its decision last week after it suspended my column, and provided a pretext in front of media outlets that it had only suspended last week's column," she added.

In response to criticism against Habib for reporting on the statement issued by 36 national figures last month, Habib stated that "the journalist's duty is to report the news truthfully, and what AFP did is relay the story as it actually happened."

Habib added that it is the duty of journalists to relay news as they occur on the ground, and what she did was cover the news and segments of the statement issued by the 36 signatories, without any addition or omission.

The statement had stirred controversy in local and international media, which described the contents and the initiative as "unprecedented," for warning of grave dangers if real and tangible reform does not take place in Jordan, and alluded to criticism of members of the royal family.

In response to AFP's reports, The Royal Hashemite Court issued a statement on February 10, 2011 expressing that it reserves the right to pursue legal action against Habib for what it considered "serious and totally untrue allegations against Her Majesty Queen Rania Al Abdullah and Her Majesty's family, the Yasin family," and charging that Ms. Habib wrongly described the signatories on the statement as "tribal leaders."

The Royal Court's statement said that the 36 individuals are not leaders o the tribes to which they belong, and do not represent the Jordanian people.

"Ms. Habib also quoted rumours that Her Majesty’s office has helped over 78,000 Palestinians obtain Jordanian nationalities without verifying them. This is a false accusation. These rumours should have been checked with the Ministry of Interior, whose official records would have proven that they are totally baseless," the Royal Court statement said.

AFP's Randa Habib maintained that her coverage of the tribal statement is part of her "journalistic duty to report on such unprecedented events," and that she reported directly from the statement without addition or omission, noting that the statement to the King was newsworthy because the tribesmen clearly identified themselves, compared to previous statements that she did not report on because the signatories were anonymous.

A renowned journalist and columnist, Habib has been AFP's Bureau Chief in Amman since 1987, and reported extensively in the region and interviewed world leaders and royalty throughout her career.

She is the author of "Hussein and Abdullah: Inside the Jordanian Royal Family," published in French in 2007, in Arabic in 2008, and hit the stands in English January 2010.

Habib was awarded the "Chevalier de l'Ordre National du Merite" in 2001 and the "Chevalier de la Legion d'Honneur", the highest French award, in 2008, by French presidents Jacques Chirac and Nicolas Sarkozy respectively.