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Ammon News - CAIRO - The Arabic Network for Human Rights Information said on Thursday that the Jordanian government should reconsider the decision of blocking tens of websites from public workers.

All reasons declared for this decision turned to be untrue as the blocking targeted independent news sites that report on issues of public opinion concern such as the teachers’ crisis , veterans status and rights of day labourers.

The Jordanian government has blocked more than 40 websites in all public work places as a first step, claiming that browsing the internet is a waste of work time and a huge drain of public money.

However, after implementing the decision , it was found that most blocked sites are independent ones that report on what the state owned news agencies would conceal especially public opinion issues.

Gamal Eid , ANHRI executive director said,” The blocking decision is not only against the freedom of internet use which is a human right , but a decision that assumes naivety of citizens and that they will accept such poor reasoning as well. The government knows quite well that this decision will not improve performance at work. The government should solve problems and make reform plans instead of concealing news and blocking sites”.

Internet users in Jordan represent 28% of the population , amounting to 1.8 million users half of whom are active members of Facebook.