RSF lambasts Maldives president over action against journalists

Yameen’s actions can only lead to authoritarianism and the end of democracy, the organisation said, after a court banned former journalists with the now-defunct newspaper, Haveeru, from working at a new paper for two years.

The decision is “utterly absurd and unacceptable,” said Benjamin Ismaïl, head of Asia-Pacific desk at RSF. “The court’s verdict not only violates the fundamental rights of all the journalists which it targets, but it also confirms, if need be, that the judiciary is serving the government’s policy to suppress critical and independent media in the country.”

The civil court’s ruling on Sunday could shutter Mihaaru, a newspaper set up in May by former Haveeru journalists who resigned en masse after the country’s oldest newspaper was shut down in an ownership dispute.