The parliament's committee on independent institutions has begun work on forming a new Media Commission, after merging Maldives Media Council (MMC) and Maldives Broadcasting Commission (Broadcom).

While a sub-committee has been formed to do the work, it met on Sunday night to analyze the Media Commission Bill. During this meeting, the sub-committee members held discussions with current members of the Maldives Media Council (MMC) and the Maldives Broadcasting Commission (Broadcom).

Both institutions agreed that the commission must remain an independent institution answerable only to the parliament, even after the merger.

The Maldives Media Council recommended the committee form a commission consisting of nine members based on the current media regulations and Broadcom regulations, whereas the Broadcom members prefer a commission consisting of seven members.

MMC further proposed that the Media Commission's members are both from the media and the public.

Nevertheless, the committee determined the Commission should be made up of three members or two full-time members and one member provided with a sitting allowance as they did not believe the amount of work required to do by the Commission warrants more than three members based on the discussion with members of MMC and Broadcom.

According to the MMC, the main objective of the Commission should be to regulate and develop the media industry. They added that the new Commission should not harshly penalize media institutions and issue hefty fines such as Broadcom has done in the past. Otherwise, the growth of media institutions in the Maldives will be hindered and the media industry would face many challenges.

The MMC further added that a code of conduct for media institutions also needs to be introduced and that focus should be on the development of media or journalism.

The committee has also determined to meet with the heads of media institution, which is to proceed later on Monday.

The committee further expressed that they hope all media professionals will be satisfied with the revisions brought to media regulation laws by the time the bill is introduced.