Maldives has made significant progress in the 2020 World Press Freedom Index by Reporters Without Borders (RSF).
As such, a publication by RSF reveals that Maldives has jumped 19 ranks from its previous position, at 98th during 2019.
Maldives rose to 79th out of 180 countries this year and RSF highlighted that former President Abdulla Yameen’s defeat by Ibrahim Mohamed Solih during the 2018 presidential elections has “raised hopes” because the new president had given specifically pledged to “improve press freedom”
As such, while the Yameen administration was “very hostile” to press freedom, the island nation fell increasingly in the World Press Freedom Index, from 103rd in 2013 to 120th in 2018.
However, the country climbed up from the spot to the 79th spot within two years, under the administration of Solih.
Shedding light on the wide harassment of independent media outlets, especially RaajjeTV which had to pay a total of 215,000 euros in fines for “allegedly defaming the ex-president”, RSF noted that police violence against journalist increased steeply during the first six months of 2018, the year Yameen was defeated by his successor.
One promise has been kept, said RSF, owing to the government’s repeal of the draconian law on defamation, implemented during 2016. This was done just two months after the presidential elections.
The situation has since improved, but impunity is still a major issue. The police never found Ahmed Rilwan Abdulla, a journalist who disappeared in August 2014, nor have they identified his abductors. The murder of Yameen Rasheed, a blogger who was stabbed to death in April 2017, has also gone unpunished”RSF
When Yameen came into power in 2013, Maldives was ranked on the 103rd spot and had fallen by 17 ranks by the end of his term in 2018.
Following the publication of the rankings, Maldives Minister of Foreign Affairs took to Twitter, writing that “we continue to see great improvements” in press freedom which has been accepted and appreciation worldwide. He concluded with a cheerful “let’s continue with it!”
One of President Solih’s first acts as president upon assuming office was to repeal the Anti-Defamation Act and formed a presidential inquiry commission, the “Commission on Deaths and Disappearances”, tasked with investigating unresolved murders and disappearances, such as the murder cases of Rilwan and Yameen.
