Ammon News - AMMONNEWS – A Jordanian journalist filed a complaint to the National Center for Human Rights (NCHR) against the head of the General Intelligence Directorate (GID) in protest of what he described “Security encroachment” in Al Rai daily newspaper policies.

Omar Al Assaf , a local journalist told Ammon News that he is suffering from the GID's harassment.

The GID obstructed his promotion from becoming an Managing Editor in the local department in the newspaper, he claimed.

The Jordan Press Foundation is the mother government majority-owned company of Al Rai, The Jordan Times, and Hatem children's magazine.

According to the by-laws of the newspaper, Assaf is supposed to be an editor manager, but he learned that the GID stopped his promotion.

Assaf criticized his Editor–in-Chief, Samih Maaytah (appointed), and accused him of remaining silent and not taking action against GID‘s encroachment in the policies of the Newspaper.

Assaf has been working as a correspondent to Al Nahar Lebanese daily Newspaper since 2002, and in Al Rai since 1996, and is an activist and defender of freedom of the press.

The harassments came after a scour of his reports to Al Nahar about the political events in Jordan, he claimed.

He is protesting against what he considered a "regression in press freedoms" and continued encroachment of authorities in the media's work.

He also called for respecting the independence and freedom of the press, and ending the interference of authorities.

Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), the international organization - based in New York, has documented several assaults on the press in Jordan since March, including attacks against news bureaus, threats against media staffers, assaults on journalists covering demonstrations, and the hacking of news websites.

In April, CPJ said that government failure to take decisive legal measures against those who physically assault journalists in Jordan amounts to a tacit endorsement of such attacks.

* Omar Assaf photo