liberties (as opposed to not breaching them and especially the rights to reputation and privacy). Many of the standards found in Articles 4, 5 and 7 of the Law are norms that are more commonly found in self-regulatory systems for the media. This is the case, for example, with the requirement to maintain balance and to respect truth, which should not be imposed by law generally on expressive activities. What makes self-regulatory systems compliant with international standards relating to freedom of expression is that they normally result in only light types of sanctions, such as publishing a notice recognising breach of the standards, whereas imposing heavier, legally enforced sanctions by law is far more problematical. In Jordan, Article 7((f) of the Law renders compliance with the JPA Code of Honour mandatory, while the JPA Law provides for extensive sanctions at the hands of the JPA disciplinary board for breach of the Code.25 As such, this cannot be considered to be a self-regulatory system. It should be noted that the Media Commission’s proposals for amending the Law include repealing Articles 5 and 7. A number of other provisions in the Law address more specific content issues. For example, Article 30(a) prohibits the publication of content under a pseudonym unless the author has provided his or her real name. Article 30(b) provides that any content published in exchange for a fee must be labelled as an advertisement. According to Article 36(b), publishing material covered by intellectual property rights according to the legislation in force is prohibited unless written authorisation has been obtained from the owner of the rights. Articles 38(a), (b) and (c) are essentially blasphemy provisions, prohibiting the publication of content which is pejorative or disparaging of constitutionally protected religions, which abuses the Prophets, which insults others’ religious beliefs or which incites sectarian strife or racism. Article 38(d), on the other hand, prohibits the publication of content which is libellous or slanderous, which humiliates individuals or which violates others’ freedoms. Article 39(a) prohibits the press from publishing information about an investigation relating to a case prior to its referral to the courts unless the prosecutor allows this. Article 39(b) provides that the print media may publish material relating to court hearings unless the court provides otherwise for purposes of upholding the rights of the individual or family, public order or public morals. According to Article 39(c), these rules apply to foreign media as well. The general sanction provision in Article 47(b), which provides for a fine of up to JD 500, applies to Articles 30 and 36. Breach of Articles 38(a), (b) and (c), according to Article 46(d), attract much heavier fines of between JD 10,000 and 20,000, although this sort of 25 See Assessment of Media Development in Jordan: Based on UNESCO’s Media Development Indicators, note 7, p. 148. Jordan: Analysis of the Press and Publications Law, 1998, as Amended - 17