Reporters Without Borders calls for release of RaajjeTV employees

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has called on Maldivian authorities to ‘immediately’ free RaajjeTV employees.

RaajjeTV journalists Mohamed Wisam and Mohamed Fazeen, and programme head Amir Saleem, were arrested at the mass Friday rally on March 16.

While Fazeen has since been released, Wisam and Amir have been remanded for ten days after being accused of making a video showing masked men in police uniforms expressed their opposition to the government.

Their arrests came just hours after Ahmed Nihan, the ruling party’s parliamentary group leader, accused RaajjeTV of posting the video on Youtube. This has been denied by the station.

The ruling party’s deputy leader Abdul Raheem Abdulla had also repeated his call for security forces to shut down RaajjeTV, which had closed in early February under pressure from the authorities.

The political crisis in Maldives erupted at the start of February when the Supreme Court ordered the release of nine political prisoners and to reinstate 12 opposition MPs. Since then, President Abdulla Yameen declared a state of emergency and arrested two Supreme Court justices as well as opposition leaders, MPs, journalists, and protesters.

“We urge the authorities to immediately release the two journalists, whose detention has been extended without any concrete evidence being produced to support a judicial investigation,” said Daniel Bastard, the head of RSF’s Asia-Pacific desk.

“The authorities must stop harassing Raajje TV on the grounds that it does not support President Yameen’s government. With the country under the yoke of an extended state of emergency, respect for media freedom is the best way to emerge from this persistent crisis and thereby serve the public interest.”

Maldives is ranked 117th out of 180 countries in RSF's 2017 World Press Freedom Index.