16 DECEMBER 2005

Back to list

Journalists continue to be harassed in the Maldives

Abdulla Saeed (Fahala), journalist for the Maldivian Newspaper Minivan Daily, faces a life sentence in the Maldives.

Mr Saeed was summoned to Male police station on the 13th of October 2005.  He was stripped by the police who “found” drugs on him. The journalist denies the charges and stated during his interrogation “No one in their right mind would go to a police station with drugs in his pockets!”

Abdulla Saeed has been imprisoned in the past for writing articles critical of the government.    The regime often tries to portray opponents as drug addicts.   He joins the ranks of Minivan journalists like Colonel Nasheed and Jennifer Latheef who have been intimidated and detained by the regime.  Jennifer Latheef, photojournalist for Minivan Daily has recently been sentenced for 10 years for terrorism- throwing a stone at a policeman – a charge she vociferously denies.

According to Aminath Najeeb the editor of Minivan Daily.  “President Gayoom in a recent BBC interview stated that newspapers in the Maldives are allowed to be critical of the government and that the Maldives was a very liberal society.  It’s nonsense- how can there be freedom to criticise the government when our journalists are constantly being threatened and detained?  It makes a mockery of his so called democratic reforms”.

Friends of Maldives condemns the continued harassment of journalists in the Maldives and urges the government of Maldives to allow an independent media to operate and recognise that freedom of expression is vital to any form of democratic progress in the Maldives.

Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Article 19 : Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opnions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.

FOM urges the Government of Maldives to: -

1. Drop all fabricated charges against Abdulla Saeed
2. Charge those policemen who have planted drugs on his person
3. Desist from its continuous harassment of journalists and human rights activists in the Maldives and Sri Lanka
4. Release all Political Prisoners of Conscience immediately

FOM calls on the International Community to:

• Place an immediate travel ban on members of the Government and other officials of the Maldives from travelling abroad into concerned countries

• Determine where Maldivian government funds are banked overseas and seize those funds and assets
• Cease the supply of arms and other weaponry used by the security forces against the pro-democracy opposition
• Issue travel advisories giving thorough warnings to all tourists planning to go the Maldives of the appalling human rights record of this country

• Commence investigations against individuals in the government who are accused of murder, torture and other human rights abuses by the opposition groups with a view to bringing these individuals to trial.
• Immediately cease all non-humanitarian aid to the Maldivian government.  Ensure aid that has been given to the government is spent with full transparency and accountability.  Aid should be given to non-governmental Aid organisations working in the Maldives

MEDIA CONTACTS:

Friends of Maldives
UK spokesperson: David Hardingham +44 (0)7812 166453

64 Milford Street
Salisbury
SP1 2BP
United Kingdom
T: +44 (0)1722 504330
E: enquiries@friendsofmaldives.org
W: www.friendsofmaldives.org

NOTES TO EDITORS

Friends of Maldives – www.friendsofmaldives.org

Friends of Maldives (FOM) is a non-governmental organisation (NGO) dedicated to the protection and promotion of human rights in the Maldives. Based in the UK and established in 2003. FOM focuses its activities on providing support and publicity to prisoners of conscience and good governance in the Maldives.