‘Not free’
On this year’s World Press Freedom Day, the Maldives Independent spoke to journalists from top media outlets in the country for their views on the state of press freedom in the country.
03 May 2017, 9:00 AM
In its 2017 Freedom of the Press report, Freedom House, a US-based NGO that conducts research and advocacy on democracy, changed the status of the Maldives from Partly Free to Not Free “as the government further tightened its control of the media, including through the passage of new legislation that criminalises defamation.”
“Combined with ongoing police harassment and arbitrary arrests, the law contributed to increased self-censorship among journalists,” Freedom House observed.
The Maldives also fell five places on the annual press freedom index of the France-based Reporters Without Borders, which said the government continues to “persecute the independent media”.
On this year’s World Press Freedom Day – 10 days after the brutal murder of liberal blogger Yameen Rasheed and nearly 1,000 days after the abduction of journalist Ahmed Rilwan – the Maldives Independent spoke to senior journalists from top media outlets in the country for their views on the state of press freedom in the country.
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