obtain a licence,17 the system appears to allocate discretion to the Director to refuse to issue a licence. Furthermore, there is no apparent reason for allocating an additional 15 days beyond taking a decision for that decision to be communicated to the applicant. The deposit requirements in Articles 34 and 35 are also problematical inasmuch as they are designed to facilitate control rather than to preserve copies of publications for the future (which could be achieved by requiring deposits in national libraries). The Media Commission has also adopted some proposals for amending the Law which include replacing the Department in these articles with the National Library. Finally, the rule in Article 41 about requiring approval from the Minister before receiving funds, while no doubt well intentioned, is simply impractical from a business point of view and also opens up the door to undue control over these bodies. A better approach would be to require these bodies to be open about their funding, including by having their finances audited. As noted above, the rules on press publications are more complicated. Article 11 recognises the right of every Jordanian and every company owned by Jordanians, as well as registered political parties, to establish a press publication. It calls on the Cabinet, on the recommendation of the Minister, to grant licences to the Jordan News Agency (Petra) and to foreign news agencies on the basis of reciprocity, and calls for regulations to be adopted for private Jordanian and foreign news agencies. The primary rule on licensing of press publications is Article 12, which requires anyone wishing to obtain a licence to publish a newspaper to apply to the Minister and lists a number of required types of information, including the specialisation, language and name of responsible editor-in-chief. According to Article 13, press publications must also be registered as companies and submit their budget to the Companies Controller. Articles 17(a) and (c) provide for the Cabinet, on the recommendation of the Minister, to decide on the licence application within 30 days, and for the decision to be notified to the applicant within 15 further days. Failure to meet these deadlines shall represent a deemed approval of the application. Refusals to provide a licence must be justified. The following articles include a number of additional rules for press publications as follows: • Article 18: Transfers of licences are permitted with the permission of the Cabinet and provided that the transfer agreement is provided to the PPD. • Article 19: Licences are cancelled by law if the publication is not issued for six months or if publication stops for a set period (three months for a daily, 12 issues for a weekly and four issues if the publication is issued less frequently than weekly), although this does not apply to political party newspapers. Licences may also be 17 See Assessment of Media Development in Jordan: Based on UNESCO’s Media Development Indicators, note 7, p. 90. Jordan: Analysis of the Press and Publications Law, 1998, as Amended - 10