Protesting journalists arrested

Some of the journalists protesting in front of President’s Office on Sunday have been arrested.

Sun Online journalist Ahmed Saail Ali reported from the field that the police have arrested 14 of the journalists from the sit-down and have taken them away in a police vehicle - most of them belonging to Haveeru.

The people arrested include heads of some media stations as well as female journalists.

The journalists are protesting over the Civil Court order to temporarily shut down the longest running newspaper in Maldives – Haveeru – without the input of all of the company's shareholders until the ownership issue is resolved in court; as well as their discontent over police from revealing what they feel is sufficient information regarding the case of missing journalist – Ahmed Rilwan – who has been missing for over 600 days.

Journalists are also protesting the bill by Parliamentary Group Leader of ruling Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM), Vilimale MP Ahmed Nihan to amend Defamation and Freedom of Expression Act.

Leading Maldivian journalists have released a joint statement expressing concern over the bill which they say would prevent journalists and ordinary citizens from speaking about serious accusations of corruption about senior state officials, and questioning their integrity.

The bill prescribes fines between MVR 50,00 to MVR 5 million for violations – and jail sentences for those who fail to pay the fine. It also calls for media stations that published anything deemed as “defamatory” to have their licenses revoked.

International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has also called for Maldivian government to withdraw the bill.

The protest - which started at around 11 am - got heated when police tried to send the journalists away from near President's Office. Clashes between police officers and journalists resulted in injuries to some journalists, while police used pepper pray to control the crowd.

Police are unavailable for comment regarding the incident at the moment.