Privately-owned television station, RaajjeTV has headed to the Maldives Police Service (MPS) with arson threats.
In a letter addressed to the Commissioner of Police, Ali Shujau by the station’s Deputy Chief Operating Officer Naazmee Saeed, the station sought to probe the issue of a man threatening on social media platform ‘Instagram’ to torch the station.
The threat was issued by an anonymous individual in the comment section of a post by RaajjeTV’s Senior Video Journalist Laisa Ahmed, at 09:43am on 28 April 2024.
The menacing comment by the unknown Instagram user reads that he would “torch RaajjeTV” and even targeted the journalist.
As the station sees this as an act of terrorism, RaajjeTV has sought from the police institution to probe the case as a serious matter.
The letter also seeks protection from the police institution, for the station and the employees.
Further, the letter shed light on the arson attack by a group of masked and armed individuals on 7 October 2013. The station asserts that CCTV footage shows that armed individuals had entered the office’s studio and doused it in petrol before lighting it on fire, with which RaajjeTV had suffered irreparable damages.
The letter reads that even after 11 years have passed since the attack, justice has not been served for the station and its workers.
According to the letter, a group of masked individuals set fire to the building where RaajjeTV was operating, the very same day after RaajjeTV informed the police in writing about the possibility of such an attack before it happened.
However, it was noted that the chances of the station suffering such a huge loss were slim if the relevant authorities had taken relevant measures back then.
With this, RaajjeTV has requested to take this threat seriously this time and provide the necessary protection from the police institution.
RaajjeTV believes that the arson attack was rooted from the fact that the station did not back down in the face of challenges and attempts of then-political figures to intimidate the station and obstruct its work.
The station in October 2021 sought justice from the Ombudsperson's Office for Transitional Justice as authorities failed to proceed with the case.
A group of masked men broke down the iron gates and door of RaajjeTV’s studio building in the early hours of 8 October 2013 and torched the studio, located in the Queen of the Night building. The station incurred tremendous losses, totaling MVR 11.65 million.
RaajjeTV is the first ever news station across the Maldives to have begun broadcasting on a round-the-clock basis and has faced numerous challenges since its establishment in 2010. The channel was subject to harassment and gross discrimination during the tenure of recently freed ex-president Abdulla Yameen Abdul Gayoom.
As such, the station was fined under the draconian Anti-Defamation Freedom of Speech Act passed by the previous administration, a number of times, the fines reaching MVR 3.7 million in total. Some of the station’s employees have also been victimized by police brutality and harassment from then ruling-party protestors over the years as well as prosecution.
One of the first tasks of former president Ibrahim Mohamed Solih was repealing the anti-defamation law, a major pledge of his presidential campaign in 2018.
