Defamation bill to receive power to close down media stations

An amendment has been presented to the Anti-Defamation bill to close down media stations that fail to pay any defamation fines within a given period of time.

The amendment was made the by MP for the Kelaa constituency, Ali Arif on the bill research committee.

He has presented an draft of the bill with 39 articles as opposed to the existing bill of 31 articles.

Article 32 of the draft presented by MP Arif says that failing to pay the specified fine for a defamation within an allocated period of time, the government entity overseeing media regulations has to suspended or void the media license of the said media station.

The original draft of the bill by the MP for Ungoofaaru constituency, Jaufaru Dhaaood does not have a clause to void or suspend media licenses.

According to the amendment draft by Arif, the journalist who writes the defamatory content has to be put in prison as well.

There were no amendments offered to completing the fine payment before being allowed to make any appeals. It is an article the Medias have raised concerns about.

A new article to the bill states that if defamatory content is included in a live event, the live feed must be brought to a halt. And the victim of the defamation has the right to bring the feed to a stop.

The new draft by MP Arif does not lower the fines mentioned in the original draft. And so the fines remain between MVR 50,000 and MVR 2,000,000 for broadcasters and publishers that release defamatory or content that threatens national security. And the journalist who prepares the content can be fined between MVR 50,000 and MVR 150,000.

The bill also states that any media station or journalist that publishes content that goes against the fundamentals of Islam, charges would be pursued under the penal code.