The Analyser - Politics

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.