How the defamation law has changed Maldives’ media landscape
The new defamation law has forced newsrooms across the Maldives to practice self censorship, use broadcasting delays and control what is said by politicians on talk shows
24 Aug 2016, 9:00 AM
On August 13, a 59-year-old man disappeared on a rural island nearly 40 miles south of Malé. The police called it a missing person case. That afternoon, at an editorial meeting at Villa TV, journalists found themselves in a fix. Could the private broadcaster name the missing man without provoking defamation charges?
“Under the new law, we cannot report his name without his permission,” an editor who spoke on the condition of anonymity said. “The news we carried that afternoon was short. A person is missing, the police are searching.”
The widely condemned law, in sweeping and vague terms, criminalises content that is defamatory, breaches social norms and Islamic tenets, and threatens national security.
Editors felt the missing man could sue for defamation if his ‘disappearance’ turned out to be voluntary and not the result of a criminal act. This could lead to a penalty of up to MVR2million (US$130,000), and failure to pay the fine would result in a six-month jail term, and worse, closure of the news outlet.
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