Audiovisual and electronic media outlets, as well as social media, have extensively reacted to the incident of the assault by the brothers of Deputy Zeid Shawabkeh on a migrant worker in Aqaba. Meanwhile, the coverage of the four printed dailies has varied.

Media coverage of the story began on Saturday, 3 October, with the circulation of a video showing the assault by the brother of the deputy, escorted by others, on the migrant worker. The story went viral, prompting media outlets to look for new details.

The Jordanian Media Credibility Monitor (AKEED) is of the opinion that media coverage of the incident was different this time as some media outlets were indeed looking for the details of the story because it is a humanitarian case related to the beating of a migrant worker. Another reason is that the second party is a public figure, who is a Member of Parliament, along with his brothers. The outcome is that media outlets played their role in searching for and investigating the truth. They were not content, as happened in previous cases, with the adoption of what is published on social media. Instead, they tried to subject what is published to their own standards.

The media did not leave the public exposed to rumors concerning what was published about all dimensions of the story. Also, it did not adopt one viewpoint to the exclusion of another.

Some media outlets conducted exclusive interviews with the Egyptian worker, whether by video or through telephone calls or written statements to clarify what happened exactly.

In following the story, these media outlets not only interviewed the migrant worker, but were also looking for any statement issued by the deputy or his brother. They published the statement made by the deputy about the story. They also published the interview an Egyptian TV conducted with him and the statement released by the brother of the deputy in full.

In addition, media outlets published the official statements made by the media spokesman of the government and the Egyptian Embassy in Amman and its Consulate in Aqaba.

The issue triggered a wave of societal debate. Additionally, social media interacted with it, clearly contributing to the creation of public opinion vis-à-vis the incident. This made other Arab media beyond Jordan and Egypt interact with it. For example, Al Jazeera and Sky News carried the story and the video.  

According to monitoring by AKEED, around 400,000 people watched the video clips of the assault on You Tube. There were around 5,000 shares of the video clips on Facebook by the time this report was written.

Printed Daily Press

The coverage of the printed dailies of the incident varied. Al Rai and Al Dustour only published the statements by the media spokesman of the government and the Egyptian Embassy, but without referring to the key incident and the assault. They did not mention the name of the deputy or his brother. Also, the two newspapers did not do any follow-up on the story. Al Sabeel (in its hardcopy) did not report on the incident at all. Al Ghad stood out from the rest of the printed press in that it published an interview with the migrant worker conducted by its correspondent in Aqaba where the attack occurred. It also published the details of the incident and a press report that monitored the debate around the incident on Facebook.

Negative Aspects of Coverage

AKEED monitored some limited negative aspects involving the coverage. When the video was first released, there was reference only to a "Jordanian deputy" without revealing his identity, which led to the spread of rumors that affected other deputies, including Assaf Shawbaki, who issued a statement on his Facebook page, in which he denied that he was the deputy referred to in the incident.

Also, when news about the incident first broke, Deputy Shawabkeh said in initial statements that the worker had insulted the Jordanian people. It was observed that media outlets excluded this story while following up on the incident when they later covered a press release and statements by the deputy, besides another release by his brother, in which both dropped