Raajje Television (RaajjeTV) has on Thursday donated funds, raised by their staff, to help fellow station SanguTV pay off a hefty fine imposed by the Maldives Broadcasting Commission.

SanguTV has begun a fund-raising drive, called the ‘Faisaa Jaadi’, in order to pay of the MVR 100,000 fine, imposed alleging defamation.

RaajjeTV’s chief operating officer Hussein Fiyaz said that such fines are attempts to thwart the role of independent media outlets in holding the government accountable.

Fiyaz encouraged the public to contribute to SanguTV’s fund. RaajjeTV itself has been fined several times under Maldives’ defamation act – which controversially criminalized slander.

SanguTV was fined on the basis of MP Mohamed Musthafa slandering President Abdulla Yameen during an interview he gave in December.

RaajjeTV was also fined by a sum of MVR 500,000 over an interview the lawmaker gave to the station. Vmedia, owned by the leader of a party now in the opposition, was also fined by MVR 400,000.