About halfway through a press conference in Amman last July convened to announce the launch of ATV, Jordan’s first privately owned satellite television station, an assistant passed the station’s head, Mohannad Khatib, a note. “They took our signal off the air,” it read.

After two years spent negotiating the licenses, working around government interference, securing millions of dollars in financing, and constructing an enormous headquarters in Amman, the government had pulled the plug. Khatib was furious. When the press conference ended, he rushed back to his office and tuned in to the station. The screen was blank. ATV had become the latest casualty in the losing battle for media freedom in Jordan.

“Government” in Jordan does not function in the way Americans understand the term. A monarchy led by King Abdullah, known in the U.S. for his fluent English and media savvy, presents the appearance of being above the fray of a lively local political scene. This image is enhanced by the Bush administration’s regular praise of Jordan as an evolving democracy. Yet meaningful political debate is neutralized by the ubiquitous intelligence services, which prop up weak government institutions subservient to the monarchy. In Arab countries, including Jordan, the intelligence service, the mukhabarat, often counts among the most efficient national institutions. Because the mukhabarat operates in the shadows of the government, it can seem invisible to the unaccustomed eye. But it’s there. And while the Jordanian government characterizes local media as enjoying wide latitude in covering the news, the mukhabarat is actively working to undermine them.

Its most efficient tools are fear and self-censorship. The mukhabarat functions alongside, behind, above, and sometimes instead of traditional law enforcement, depending on the situation. Most people do not want to get entangled with the shadowy agency, whose buildings remain...

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