Gov’t demands mutual respect from the very journalists it torments

President Dr. Mohamed Muizzu’s government has officially rolled out a nationwide drive designed to cultivate a shared atmosphere of civility across Maldivian society by drawing in diverse sectors, branding the entire venture under the banner of dignity and mutual regard. Within this outreach, state officials made a point of inviting news organizations to take part, pitching the press as a vital ally in making the project work.

However, anyone watching this spectacle has to wonder how much genuine consideration this regime and the head of state actually have for the press corps.

Slander from the highest pulpit

The incumbent has frequently and directly unleashed scathing attacks against specific press agencies. He has repeatedly dismissed multiple news operations as bottom-tier tabloids and inferior outlets, alleging that their work amounts to nothing more than the circulation of false claims.

Beyond that, he routinely paints reporters as instigators who peddle division and invent falsehoods instead of doing real journalism. It was none other than the president who personally branded news personnel as mere gossipmongers.

Raids and penalties

The hostility hardly stops at barbed speeches. On this government’s watch, law enforcement officers have marched directly into editorial offices and confiscated essential reporting gear. Media professionals have also been hit with financial penalties and thrown into detention cells over stories touching on judicial directives.

Alongside these punitive crackdowns on press operations, newly established oversight rules have armed media regulators with authorities that triggered sharp condemnation from domestic reporters and global watchdogs defending journalistic freedom.

Hypocrisy of a mandated handshake

When a ruling regime routinely battles adversarial news outlets, organizes police incursions into newsrooms, locks up and fines reporters, and exploits political stages to cast non-compliant media as inherently dishonest, extending a hand to ask for their help in championing mutual courtesy exposes glaring double standards.

Having systematically degraded the entire craft of reporting from the pinnacle of political power, reduced working reporters to public agitators, and dismantled the standing of every news team that refuses to march in lockstep with the regime, turning around to solicit their enthusiastic partnership in an exercise about basic respect represents the absolute height of contradiction.