Press freedom includes freedom from subsidies: President Nasheed
05 May 2010, 8:20 AM
President Mohamed Nasheed has promised the Maldivian government “will not touch the press, and will not harass the press” despite the existence of rules and regulations to do so, a legacy of the former government.
“We [don’t] want to do this because we believe a free press is responsible for consolidating democracy,” he said, speaking to visiting dignitaries at the closing ceremony of the South Asia Regional Consultation on Freedom of Information.
At the same time, he said, the government did not want to subsidise the press either.
“Right now we are still subsidising the press – especially in terms of land,” Nasheed said. “This is very sad – the government has subsidised one of the very big newspapers with land, and is unable to similarly subsidise any other paper.”
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