Our Vision: To be the most influential media with the aim of helping create a more democratic society.
Our Mission: Our mission is to encourage dialogue, to educate the public, to help in the decision making process, and to empower the marginalized groups by giving them space to express themselves.
AmmanNet leading independent news website in Jordan
Our internet coverage has made us a leading source of independent news and interactivity with Jordanians in and outside the country and has raised our standing as the leading Jordanian visited web site according to the international standings.
Radio Al-Balad …The First Jordanian Community Radio
AmmanNet radio was launched on November 15th, 2000 and it began producing audio reports, news bulletins and a variety of programming all of which were posted on the Net.
AmmanNet radio began broadcasting terrestrially on 92.4 FM in the Amman metropolitan area in the summer of 2005 after the King issued a temporary law allowing the creation of an writing services audio visual commission, which in turn made it possible for terrestrial broadcasting.
Early in January 2008, the name of AmmanNet radio was changed to Radio Al-Balad; when Ammannet.net was launched we used the logo “the Voice of the Community,” but when Radio Al-Balad radio began broadcasting on 92.4 fm frequency in Amman we said that we are ‘radio al-nas wal balad‘, the radio of the people and the country. Our goal has and will continue to be the service of the people of Jordan and beyond. AmmanNet.net remained as a news website.
Community Media Network
Community Media Network established in 2007 is an independent media NGO seeking to serve the Jordanian community through an enlightening discourse. CMN has a Board of Directors that supervises the radio and website. The current members of the board are Elias Farkouh as chairman, Mahmoud Zawawi, as members. Early in January 2008, the name of AmmanNet radio was changed to Al-Balad radio; AmmanNet.net remained as a news website. The radio and the site are managed by the Community Media Network (CMN), which is a not-for profit organization, registered in March 19th, 2007 under number (156) with the goal to manage media and cultural projects throughout the Kingdom.
Community Media Network Websites
- AmmanNet website: http://ar.ammannet.net/news/category/english
- Aswatona website: http://aswatona.net/category/en
- Radio Al-Balad website
- Community Media Network website: http://communitymedianetwork.org/
- Hona Zarqa website: http://honazarqa.com
- Syrian among us website: http://ammannet.net/sy
Social Media Accounts
What distinguishes “AmmanNet and Al-Balad Radio” pages on social media is that they reflect what CMN offers genuinely in community media and interactivity. AmmanNet website and Al-Balad radio were steady in maintaining this stream in the pages of social media as they do not use cheap and shallow topics and commercial images to attract the audience; its goal is to attract those who are drawn by the content, and to promote the content provided by CMN in different media outlet.
AmmanNet website on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AmmanNet
AmmanNet website on Twitter: @ammannet
Radio AlBalad on Twitter: @RadioAlBalad924
Al-Balad radio on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Balad92.4/?fref=ts
Debates
Community Media Network in collaboration with the Quds Center for Political Studies organized 13 debates during the period of 2011 – 2012 in Amman, Zarqa, Madaba Balqa, Karak, Jerash, Tafileh, Irbid and Aqaba. These debates focused on several laws and issues such as “the economic priorities, the political parties law, the relationship between citizenship and the state, the budget bill for fiscal year 2012, the public movement, the 2012 draft election law, the up-rise of the Islamic movements, the economic situation and public demands, the distribution of development gains on remote areas and the parliamentary elections… between boycott and participation.”
During these debates, Al-Balad radio was forced to cancel a debate that was supposed to take place in Rosaifa in the governorate of Zarqa in September 2012 under the title “Water scarcity: failure in planning or forgetfulness and marginalization?”
This activity comes from our strong belief in the importance of the debates to shed light on the most prominent policies and laws that touch the citizens in the community issues.
Community Media Network Projects
- Aswatona Project
Aswatona Project, a three-year program, includes advocating activities to improve the legislative regulations and the establishment of community radio stations in Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Yemen, Syria, Jordan and Palestine. For more information:
- Empowering Zarqa’s Women using Media Project
A three-year project aiming at training women from the governorate of Zarqa on media; it includes producing a weekly program and a bi-monthly newspaper to cover the issues of Zarqa. The trainees prepare and submit the content under the supervision of professional journalists. It also includes holding seminars on issues related to women in Zarqa.
- Investigative Reports Unit
The investigative unit in Al-Balad radio and AmmanNet website, which was founded in 2011, prepares in-depth investigative journalism reports of community issues in a professional documentary manner. In the first year, the unit has accomplished six investigative reports that have dealt with important issues, such as the suffering of patients with thalassemia, sports stimulants, assaults on persons with disabilities, purchase of university graduation thesis projects, waste of grant funds and leaking of Tawjihi questions. Our unit also made special coverage of the Jordanian side of the Panama Papers.
- Human Rights Department
The project aims to advocate and promote the rule of law and a culture of human rights in Jordan among the public, official decision-makers and civil society. It aims to support local and international efforts of civil society organizations and individuals and governments in the field of human rights and in their efforts to change the laws according to the recent constitutional and international agreement to enhance the rule of law in protecting human rights.
Listeners’ Club
A group of listeners took the initiative and founded in 2006 the Club of Listeners in cooperation with the radio administration. The club has an administrative body headed by Mohammad Abu Safiya and meets periodically and supports the radio station. The club has become a unique application of the concept of the new media in which the citizen becomes a journalist.
Employees
CMN personnel consist of Ten staff members working as journalists, administrators, technicians and project managers, in addition to dozens of volunteers.
Key Staff of CMN
Founder and Director: Daoud Kuttab, [email protected]
Financial and Administrative Officer: Mahmoud Borini: [email protected]
Editor- in-Chief: Mohammad Ersan, [email protected]
Radio Al-Balad Manager: Etaf Roudan, [email protected]