Jordan dailies strike in protest at state 'interference'

Jordan's largest daily, the government-owned Al-Rai, and its sister newspaper suspended publication on Tuesday after staff held a one-day strike in protest at state "interference". "Al-Rai and Jordan Times did not publish today after employees at the Jordan Press Foundation, which publishes the two dailies, observed a one-day strike on Monday," Al-Rai said on its website. The unprecedented strike "came in protest at government interference and procrastination in implementing a 2011 labour agreement" on salaries, it said. The Jordan Times, in a separate statement, said the action was taken after the appointment of a new board of directors headed by former interior minister Mazen Saket, described by the strikers as an "enemy of press freedoms". The employees of the papers, which were launched in the 1970s, also criticised Prime Minister Abdullah Nsur. Workers "have started a boycott of the news of the prime minister and his government, citing the negative responses they have received from the government" to their demands, the English-language daily said. Their aim was to "reform Al-Rai by restoring its historic role in serving Jordanians and the Hashemite throne and not the government of Abdullah Nsur." Government officials as well as journalists from the two newspapers were not immediately available for comment.