Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has placed Maldives 22 ranks above its previous position.

After Maldives' rank rose to 120 out of 180 countries this year, RSF stated that President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih’s election win has raised hopes as he had given specific pledges on improving press freedom.

“One promise has been kept: two months after the elections, parliament repealed the draconian 2016 law on defamation, which had been widely used by the previous government to harass independent media outlets, especially Raajje TV, which had to pay a total of 215,000 euros in fines for allegedly defaming Yameen.”

Maldives was ranked 103 when President Abdulla Yameen came to power in 2013, and had fell 17 ranks by the end of his rule in 2018.

While police violence against journalists is currently not an issue, RSF noted that authorities have not found the truth behind the 2014 disappearance of journalist Ahmed Rilwan, and that the murder of Yameen Rasheed, a blogger who was stabbed to death in 2017, remains unpunished.

Upon assuming office, President Solih’s first act as president was to repeal the Anti-Defamation Act and has also formed a special commission to investigate murders and disappearances, including Rilwan and Yameen’s cases.