"Working as a critic, you learn to duck incoming words and shards of shattered cocktail glasses. I’ve developed pretty thick skin. Critics take a beating, especially in popular culture. Jean Sibelius’s observation — “No statue has ever been erected to a critic” — seems to be cited somewhere weekly. As well-known quotations go, this one strikes me as especially banal. It implies something disheartening about our culture."

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"Journalists protest against the government’s proposed amendments to the Press and Publications Law outside the Jordan Press Association on Thursday"

"Scores of online media publishers, owners and workers demonstrated at the Jordan Press Association (JPA) on Thursday to express their rejection of the draft amendments to the Press and Publications Law approved by the government a day earlier.

Media stakeholders said the amendments were a setback to press freedom in Jordan, but the government said they did not impose any new restrictions and that the decision to shut down registered online media outlets will be solely in the hands of the judiciary."

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