According to the 2016 survey statistics revealed by the Audiovisual Media Commission of Jordan, the official agency responsible for the implementation of press and publications laws, there are 365 publishing houses and 216 libraries in the Kingdom.
The commission emphasised the freedom publishers enjoy in the Kingdom, where there is no censorship on books at all. They also observed that no book has ever been barred from entering Jordan, and literature has been freely distributed in the local market, unless it has violated the law by inciting hatred and terrorism, or overridden issues identified by law.
Jordan’s strategic location and its proximity to Palestine, Syria, Saudi Arabia and Iraq, besides being home to many universities and colleges that attract Jordanian and Arab students, indicate Jordan’s pivotal role in the region’s publishing scene, especially in academic books, which is the mainstay of the Jordanian publishing industry.
