CPJ releases detailed report reg. continued injustices against RaajjeTV

Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has released a detailed report of the continued injustices against RaajjeTV.

The station has been fined thrice in seven months, under the controversial defamation act that was introduced in August 2016. It was slapped with its third fine early October, forcing its staff members to take to the streets to raise the funds, with journalists even traveling to the various islands.

CPJ in the report said that it has found “criminal defamation laws are often used as tool to jail journalists and silence dissent, particularly by authoritarian governments”. Before the defamation law was passed, CPJ had said that it would “further stifle the beleaguered press and marks a significant step backward from press freedom in the Maldives”.

Officials from the station including Managing Director Ahmed Saleem, President of the Maldives Broadcasting Commission (MBC) Mohamed Shaheeb and renowned lawyer Ibrahim Riffath spoke to CPJ’s Asia Research Associate, Aliya Iftikhar.

CPJ said that Shaheeb “denied that the fines were imposed arbitrarily” and that MBC “only adjudicates complaints, without targeting any specific station”.

“Shaheeb said incidents of on-air broadcasts with unsubstantiated allegation towards individuals affecting their human dignity were on the increase becase of political turbulence” said CPJ.

The station’s MD said its staff members “are not doing journalism now, they are begging for help and assistance just to keep alive”.

“You can imagine the psychological impact that will have on our staff, on the station, on the business, on supporters. This is a very serious issue… If RaajjeTV can be shut down, then maybe other things can be shut down," Saleem told CPJ.

Read the full article here: Maldives repeatedly slaps Raajje TV with huge fines under defamation law