The first proceedings for Raajje Television’s case against the Maldives Broadcasting Commission for fining the news station by MVR 200,000 on the grounds of defamation has been scheduled for Thursday. 

The dispute resolution phase will commence at 11:15 am, and will go forth with hearings if acceptable terms are not met. 

Raajje Television’s Chief Operating Officer, Hussein Fiyaz Moosa, said that the station had filed the case with the Civil Court on the 26th of April, and that he believes the fine is unjust and unlawful.

The station is currently working to acquire funds to pay off a MVR one million fine placed by the commission, while it has fully paid said fine of MVR 200,000. 

The commission placed the fine on the station in March for report it aired about an investigation into a rape case and a senior state official who was allegedly influencing it, citing the victim’s family. 

This same verdict also fined a former journalist with the station by a sum of MVR 50,000.

“Punishing this station broadcasting the piece without relevant institutions conducting a transparent investigation- while the victim’s family consistently maintained that the individual has been influencing the case- is unjustly conducive to allowing individuals in power to punish those who are not” Raajje Television’s statement criticizing the MBC for the fine said. 

Two other journalists with the station have also been fined by MVR 28,800 for ‘obstruction of justice’ after they were arrest while covering a bomb scare in Malé City, and their cameraman, Adam Zareer, was fined by MVR 3,000 – in what the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) had described as undemocratic and unjust charges.