Minister of Arts, Culture and Heritage, Yumna Maumoon has called on the Maldives Police Service to investigate the state media’s decision to delete several video and audio footage from its archive.

A police forensic team entered the Public Service Media (PSM)’s office, headquarters of the Television of Maldives (TVM) on Monday, over the deletion.

RaajjeMV understands that most of the footage deleted was from after President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih’s inauguration on November 17.

A senior TVM official told RaajjeMV that the footage was deleted from the systems in its newsroom, adding that they were not informed of this prior. The official further said that they became aware of the situation only after, when it was required for news material.

The official added that the matter was filed at the police by an employee at the station.

In a tweet posted on Monday evening, Minister Yumna emphasized that such material “must be protected according to law”.

Further noting that such material can only be destroyed with the approval of the director general of the National Archives, Yumna called on the police to investigate the matter “properly”.

According to Article 27 of the National Archives regulations, any material can only be destroyed as per the rules, after the director general proposes to do so.

RaajjeMV has also learnt that the CCTV cameras inside PSM’s newsroom had been cut off prior to September’s presidential election, amid reports that some senior political figures were regularly visiting the office.

PSM’s newsroom is headed by Fayyaz Yoosuf, News Director, and his deputy Hassan Ziyau.