I really admire the courage and bravery of Maldivian journalists: Russo

Director of Press Cultural and Educational Affairs at US Embassy to Maldives and Sri Lanka, James Russo has praised the work carried out by Maldivian journalists in defense of free media.

He made the statement in an exclusive interview given to RaajjeTV on the occasion of World Press Freedom Day.

During his visit to RaajjeTV, Russo had inquired about the station’s operations and the challenges facing the station.

Speaking to RaajjeTV, the Director had reflected on the situation in the Maldives, developments and attacks on free media and the need for a free media and freedom of expression in nation building.

“International community is very concerned about what’s happening in the Maldives, vis a vis media freedom. We just saw very recently the terrible murder of Yameen Rasheed, which was a young social media activist, whom I had the pleasure of meeting last fall. Only 29 years old, a wonderful young man, cared deeply about his country, make the Maldives a better place. A terrible tragedy when something like that happens, for someone who’s really speaking about what he believed to be the truth. It’s also almost a thousand days since the disappearance of Rilwan as well. Seems like nothing has been done to bring the perpetrators of these terrible crimes to justice,” he said.

Russo also expressed concern over the draconian defamation laws passed in the country, which he says had effectively muzzled free press.

“We saw the passage in last summer of an anti- defamation law, which has had a chilling effect on freedom of the press, free media. You combine that with physical attacks and social media threats to journalists and social media activists and it has an effect of muzzling people, muzzling free speech. And I can even mention, since we’re at RaajjeTV, the most popular station in the Maldives, and you’ve suffered as you know, two very serious fines for another defamation law (case), which are crippling,” he added.

Noting that one cannot hope to have a functioning democracy without informed citizens, Russo described the developments as deeply concerning. He added that the developments in the Maldives was deeply concerning.