Based on the total online presence, I've been selected by the Ministry of Information and Communication Technology for the Meeting of Top Jordanian Bloggers and Online Activists with his Excellency Marwan Juma, Minister of ICT, to discuss the First Cyber Crime Draft Law in Jordan before it gets officially published, and I was honored to take part of this highly interactive 2-hours session with his Excellency.

Once I received the invitation, I really liked the idea of discussing the draft law, before it even gets published, as I think this doesn’t regularly happen in other countries, but once I got there, I loved it even more; I was positively shocked by how energetic his Excellency was, and how open the discussion was too. Our Minister of ICT was really so energetic, young, modern and down to earth.

His excellency stressed on the point that Press and Publications Law should not be applied on Internet, and that's why Information Systems / Cyber Crime Law is subject to be published soon, to fill the gaps in a temporary version to be enhanced by time. He also stated that this law was sent for review, 3 times, to major IT sector companies, back and forth, which doesn't regularly happen in governmental laws.

We passed through Cyber Crime Law reasons, sections and their explanations. Here are some of the general questions I asked:
How the ministry is going to monitor / index all pages for review?! Minister: I stress on this point, there will be NO monitoring! Judges will look into cases only if official complaints were received from people.
Would cases be subject to Jordanian IP's only?! MoICT legal Consultant: cases are open to be registered, regardless the IP source, and each case will be looked in individually.
Does this law protect all websites or websites should be registered as official entities in order to be protected by this law? Minister: Cyber Crime Law protects all websites.

Cyber Crime Law is going to motivate intellectual conversations; criticism is surely allowed, but no cursing nor offending. i.e. you can publish, (in the Cyber-World): i disagree with this guy but not I "curse" this guy! as if you did then this guy can issue a case at court, so it's just like Real-World now! All laws and articles are subject to prove INTENTION of offense, hack, or destruction! Offense's punishment mainly includes Fine (paying amount of money only) without going to jail, as for public right, but victim can raise individual right case too.
On the Comments part, if one wrote a comment on your website, which you moderate comments on, and the offense was clear, besides a chance that victim called you to remove it, then comment author and you will be blamed too, as mostly you shouldn't allow people to be offended, nor build an extreme platform for cursing and offending people on your website or blog, why not to stress on comments terms and conditions.

So mostly, as I sensed, we were fine with most of the sections yet we reported a list of comments, and the minister kindly took them for review. My general overview and feedback was that Cyber Crime Law is kind of a light law that intends to protect people rights, ourselves, our Jordanian online networks, beside motivating intellectual conversations.

Minister also stressed on our role in the community and encouraged us to participate in the awareness campaign of CyberCrime Law. But for now we are not allowed to publish the full law statement until we are notified to, while it should be officially published soon. [UPDATE: Law is officially published: Jordan Information Systems Cyber Crime Law | قانون جرائم انظمة المعلومات]

Meeting Members: Minister of ICT Mr. Marwan Juma, MoICT Legal Consultant, Head of IT Policy, and Director of Policies and Strategies whom sent the Meeting Invitation by E-mail -attaching Cyber Crime draft Law, Law thereof and the Explanatory Memorandum - to Jordan Bloggers: Rani Dababneh, Naseem Tarawneh, Osama Romoh, Nadine Toukan, Malik Shishtawi, Fadi Zaghmout, Mariam Abu Adas, and Mohammed Omar.

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