By Hani Hazaimeh with agency dispatches
AMMAN - The government on Thursday rejected claims that Jordan was behind jamming the Arabic satellite channel Al Jazeera's broadcast of several matches during this year's World Cup in South Africa.
"The Jordanian government categorically denies allegations made by unnamed sources to the Guardian newspaper that it was behind the jamming of Al Jazeera's broadcast of the World Cup," a senior government official said in a statement to The Jordan Times Thursday.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that "these allegations are absolutely baseless and unacceptableة any examination will prove these allegations false", adding that the government is willing to cooperate with any independent team of experts to examine the claims.
The Guardian, a major UK-based daily, claimed in a report posted on its website on Wednesday that "mysterious jamming of TV broadcasts of the summer's World Cup by the Arabic satellite channel Al Jazeera has been traced to Jordanة after the collapse of a deal that would have allowed football fans there free access to the matches".
The daily added that "secret documents seen exclusively by the Guardian trace five episodes of jamming definitively to a location near Salt in Jordan, northeast of the capital, Amman, confirmed by technical teams using geolocation technologyة It is accurate to within a range of 3-5km".
Later Thursday, Al Jazeera television said it confirmed the report.
“The source of the jamming was Jordan,” the Qatar-based satellite television channel said, saying it was now able to confirm the Guardian’s story “based on an investigation carried out by teams of international experts”, adding that it would ask Jordan for an “official explanation”, according to Agence France-Presse.
The head of sports at Al Jazeera, Nasser Ghanim Khelaifi, threatened legal action.
The government official said that the government rejects the “speculation” that Jordan allegedly disrupted the broadcast in reaction to the collapse of negotiations to buy terrestrial broadcast rights, adding that Jordan had approached Al Jazeera with an offer to buy these rights almost four months before the start of the World Cup, but Al Jazeera did not begin the actual negotiations until a few days before the tournament started.
He explained that four days before the first match, Al Jazeera made an offer, demanding $8 million for the broadcast rights to 20 games of its choosing, and over $50,000 for the broadcast on each screen of those planned to be erected in public places, especially in remote and underprivileged areas.
“The government did not accept the offer because it believed it was made too late and the matches offered by Al Jazeera did not justify the cost. The government respected the confidentiality of these negotiations and did not reveal any details related to them. It maintained its professional relationship with Al Jazeera and its bureau in Amman,” the official said.
CEO of the Jordan Media City (JMC) Radi Alkhas said it is technically impossible to jam a satellite feed from a mobile transmission station.
“To be able to jam a signal, it has to be through a ground station with a transmitting power stronger than the jammed signal,” Alkhas, who is also a former vice president for technology and development at Arab Radio and Television, told The Jordan Times on Thursday.
“TV satellite transmission is usually from 70-400 watts. The jammer must have a transponder with a capacity of at least 500 watts. It should also have a noise generator capable of blocking the signal,” he said.
“There is no way a mobile station can do that.”
Alkhas added that the JMC worked with Al Jazeera during the World Cup by allocating four satellite links to be used whenever signal interference occurred.
The Qatar-based satellite channel sent one of its staff members to work with JMC technicians to find alternative transmissions at the time when their signal was jammed, he said, noting that “even our transmission from the JMC was subject to jamming”.
The JMC chief also questioned the accuracy of the Guardian’s report in identifying the coordinates where the alleged jamming took place in the Kingdom, saying that the margin of error in such cases ranges from 10-15km and in that case could include neighbouring countries.
