AMMAN: The trial of a Jordanian journalist accused of criticizing the authorities and King Abdullah II on social media has opened in the capital Amman, his lawyer said Monday.
Adnan Al-Rousan, 71, is accused of “inciting conflict, sowing division... spreading false news that harm the prestige of the state, slandering an official body and humiliating a civil servant,” lawyer Assem Al-Omari told AFP.
He appeared in court on Sunday and “denied the charges against him,” Omari added.
He said his client had been detained for a week and would remain under arrest until another hearing next Sunday.
Rousan, who has around 37,000 followers on Facebook, is being prosecuted over comments he published last month, Omari said.
He allegedly criticized “the king’s endless foreign trips... which are becoming ridiculous” and urged attention be paid to the country’s Bedouin tribes.
He is also being prosecuted over an article published late last month in which he allegedly accused the king of employing officials and their “children and grandchildren, awarding them bonuses and money from our pockets and not his, while our children cannot find work.”
Jordan is experiencing an economic crisis and its unemployment rate reached around 25 percent last year, according to official figures, and double that among young people.
The poverty rate has risen to 24 percent and public debt exceeded $51 billion — more than 110 percent of GDP — in the first six months of this year.
Jordanian journalist on trial over social media posts
https://arab.news/y76ek
Jordanian journalist on trial over social media posts
- Jordanian journalist is accused of inciting conflict and spreading false news that harm the Jordanian state
UAE outlines approach to AI governance amid regulation debate at World Economic Forum
- Minister of State Maryam Al-Hammadi highlights importance of a robust regulatory framework to complement implementation of AI technology
- Other experts in panel discussion say regulators should address problems as they arise, rather than trying to solve problems that do not yet exist
DUBAI: The UAE has made changes to 90 percent of its laws in the past four years, Maryam Al-Hammadi, minister of state and the secretary-general of the Emirati Cabinet, told the World Economic Forum in Davos on Wednesday.
Speaking during a panel discussion titled “Regulating at the Speed of Code,” she highlighted the importance of having a robust regulatory framework in place to complement the implementation of artificial intelligence technology in the public and private sectors.
The process of this updating and repealing of laws has driven the UAE’s efforts to develop an AI model that can assist in the drafting of legislation, along with collecting feedback from stakeholders on proposed laws and suggesting improvements, she said.
Although AI might be more agile at shaping regulation, “there are some principles that we put in the model that we are developing that we cannot compromise,” Al-Hammadi added. These include rules for human accountability, transparency, privacy and data protection, along with constitutional safeguards and a thorough understanding of the law.
At this stage, “we believe AI can advise but still (the) human is in command,” she said.
Authorities in the UAE are aiming to develop, within a two-year timeline, a shareable model to help other nations learn and benefit from its experiences, Al-Hammadi added.
Argentina’s minister of deregulation and state transformation, Federico Sturzenegger, warned against overregulation at the cost of innovation.
Politicians often react to a “salient event” by overreacting, he said, describing most regulators as “very imaginative of all the terrible things that will happen to people if they’re free.”
He said that “we have to take more risk,” and regulators should wait to address problems as they arise rather than trying to create solutions for problems that do not yet exist.
This sentiment was echoed by Joel Kaplan, Meta’s chief global affairs officer, who said “imaginative policymakers” often focus more on risks and potential harms than on the economic and growth benefits of innovation.
He pointed to Europe as an example of this, arguing that an excessive focus on “all the possible harms” of new technologies has, over time, reduced competitiveness and risks leaving the region behind in what he described as a “new technological revolution.”
