Maldives - the dark side
Maldives may be celebrated among tourists as a prime beach destination, but its citizens see a darker side.
According to ARTICLE 19, the government is among the most repressive in Asia when it comes to freedom of expression. Local media are bound by draconian regulations that aim to silence any criticism of the government; outspoken journalists are routinely harassed and detained; and criminal laws are often used to prosecute critics.
ARTICLE 19 recently teamed up with Reporters Without Borders (Reporters sans frontières, RSF), the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) and two other media support organisations on an international fact-finding mission to Maldives, where they met with government officials, diplomats, journalists and civil society representatives.
Organised by the Danish agency International Media Support, the mission took place from 3 to 6 May 2006.
The mission found that while the government has taken some steps to relax restrictions on free expression, including introducing proposals to reform media laws, serious concerns remain.
"Journalists covering political and social events and demonstrations and the participants to those demonstrations have been the victims of excessive use of force by the police," a statement by the mission said. In these cases, security forces have acted with total impunity.
The mission also recorded cases of death threats and verbal intimidation against journalists, both within independent and state-run media, and said this had resulted in a chilling effect on the media community and on freedom of expression.
During the mission, three members were roughed up by riot police while attending a World Press Freedom Day celebration hosted by the Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) on 3 May. Their translator, Nazim Sattar, who is a sub-editor for the independent "Minivan News", was briefly detained.
- RSF Petition for Jailed Maldives Critic:http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=15623
About Freedom and Democracy
I believe it is vital to the interest of journalists and the public alike that we should educate the public with the knowledge that in a democratic society the journalist is, in fact, exercising the highest form of citizenship by monitoring events in the community and making the public aware of them and their importance; by skeptically examining the behavior of people and institutions of power; by encouraging and informing forums for public debate.
We need to make it clear to the public that the journalist best expresses citizenship by functioning as a committed observer. Far from being the disinterested, disengaged outsider many people consider journalists to be, because they do not take a direct activist�s role in affairs, the journalist who works in the public interest is one who is interdependent with the needs and hopes of his fellow citizens and uses his work to help all members of the community.
This special interdependence flows from the public�s need for timely, accurate, independent information and the journalist�s need for an interested public. This interdependent role of journalists is one of the defining characteristics of democracy.
A journalist is never more true to democracy � is never more engaged as a citizen, is never more patriotic � than when aggressively doing the job of independently verifying the news of the day; questioning the actions of those in authority; disclosing information the public needs but others wish secret for self-interested purposes. And this sort of interdependent role is not found only in journalists. Our society recognizes such independent, often infuriating, behavior by others in order to protect our freedom and the rights of citizenship. We recognize, for example, such independent behavior in doctors and lawyers.
We may be upset, but we should understand when we learn that in an emergency situation a doctor saves the life of a convicted child molester before treating a less seriously wounded policeman because deep down we know that is what a doctor�s role requires and it is in the interest of all of us that the doctor does so. We recognize such independent behavior by lawyers who diligently and aggressively fight on behalf of a defendant in court against the government even in the most troublesome cases. And deep down, we understand that it is just such adherence to the rule of law that protects all of us.
It is important that we help the public come to an understanding of this role for the journalists. Without journalism � without a steady, reliable flow of independent information without which the creation, care and continuation of a public opinion would not be possible � self government would disappear. Journalism and self government will rise or fall together.
If journalists are to effectively pursue the independence that their work requires, it is important that the public understand and accept that role as a valid one. The only way to assure that is for the journalist to act with the responsibility commensurate with the freedom their independence requires.
For all that the speed, techniques and character of the news delivery has changed, the primary purpose of journalism has not: to provide citizens with a credible and accurate account of events in society so that they can be free and self-governing.
The world in which the well of accurate, reliable, factual information is not being constantly replenished is one that becomes more polluted with gossip, rumor, speculation and propaganda. This is a mixture that is toxic to civic health. This is a mixture that will produce a public less and less able to participate in civic life. This is a mixture that makes it more and more likely that a self-appointed elite will be free to exercise its will on society.
The individual reporter may not be able to move much beyond a surface level of accuracy in a given story. But the first story builds to a second, which the sources of news have responded to mistakes and missing elements in the first, and the second to a third, and so on. Context is added in each successive layer. In most important and complex stories, there are subsequent contributions on the editorial pages and the letters to the editor � the full range of public conversation and private.
This practical truth thus becomes a protean thing that grows as a stalagmite in a cave, drop by drop over time. And the process by which it grows is transparent to the audience. This is the process we should help the public understand.
For, in the end, if history teaches us anything, it teaches us that freedom and democracy do not depend upon technology or the most efficient organization. Freedom and democracy depend upon individuals who refuse to give up the belief that the free flow of information has made freedom and human dignity possible.
Extracted from Monday Times Archive
Beyyaa hasn�t made-up his mind!
Allaa Beyyaa notes that at the moment we have no ambassador in our embassy at the United Nations (New York) and none in our embassy in London. Beyyaa has also heard that the Maldivian ambassador in Sri Lanka has been brought back to Male. In that case there�s no ambassador in Colombo also. (Sadly) Maldives has only three embassies in other countries, and it is even sadder when these three embassies are without ambassadors. It is not that we don�t have plenty of capable people, so why are these embassies empty at the moment?
As far as Beyyaa knows, the Maldivian embassy in London has never had a resident ambassador since the establishment of the embassy about five to ten years ago. The Maldivian ambassador or Permanent representative to the UN, Mr. Hussain Shihab was recently brought down from New York and assigned to the post of the Deputy Minster of Foreign Affairs. Since then the top position of Maldives� UN mission has been vacant.
Beyyaa wonder who will fill that position now. Beyyaa believes that there are some very capable diplomats within the present cabinet who could represent Maldives in New York very efficiently. Of course there�s plenty of fresh blood too, who could do the job just as capably. If not for anything else, even for just providing valuable experience, it is important that the top positions of our foreign missions are always filled.
The question that is on the mind of Beyyaa and many average Maldivians is: who will become the next Maldivian ambassador to Sri Lanka. The reason why Beyyaa and many other ordinary citizens care about this is that they travel to Colombo very often and would like to see a caring leader at the top position of the embassy in Colombo. The outgoing ambassador (Azee) was very popular with the Maldivians who travelled to Colombo. He went out of his way to help ordinary Maldivians.
Beyyaa was worried when his friend Dhonrahaa recently told him that the next ambassador to Colombo would be a person who is not particularly liked by ordinary Maldivians. Beyyaa travels to Colombo often and he would like the ambassador there to be approachable and kind hearted � not a ruthless and detached person. Another important point Beyyaa wants to remind is that Colombo is still our diplomatic gateway to the rest of the world and it is very important that our ambassador in Colombo is a respected and liked person who could portray the friendly tradition of the Maldives. Such a person should be �Dhivehi� not just in name but in character as well.
While on the subject of embassies and ambassadors, Beyyaa would also like to add that he dreams of a day when Maldives would have embassies in Malaysia, Geneva and India. Beyyaa believes that, especially after the recent visit of the Indian prime Minister to the Maldives, it is very important that we have an embassy in New Delhi. That would keep us closer to the heart of India, says Beyyaa. Malaysia has vast economic potentials and Beyyaa doesn�t see the office in Singapore doing enough to tap that potential from Malaysia. So Beyyaa would like to see an embassy in Malaysia.
Beyyaa believes that our perspectives and priorities in our foreign policy needs to be reassessed and we need to introduce drastic changes in order to gear ourselves to the reality of the 21st century. Or else we would be doomed to oblivion and mediocrity.
Extracted from Monday Times Archive
