Media Council Act will undermine press freedom in Maldives

The Maldives Media Council Bill, which was ratified by the outgoing President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom on 4th November, will undermine press freedom in the island nation. The Media Council Bill, which was passed by the People’s Majlis (Parliament) on 27th October, has statutory powers to investigate public complaints against both broadcast and print media.

According to the draft of the bill, the main objectives of the Council are:

a) to establish and preserve freedom of media in the Maldives; to keep under review matters contravening this freedom and taking remedial measures.
b) to build up a code of practice and a code of conduct for the people working in the media industry.
c) to ensure people working in the media industry behave responsibly and ethically.
d) to conduct inquiries into complaints filed with the Council concerning abuse of rights.
It also states that “the Council shall be an independent legal entity having the power to sue and be sued in its own name; the capacity to conduct transactions in its own name; and a separate seal”.

The above articles very clearly illustrate the extraordinary powers the Council commands. At a time when self-regulation is promoted and opted in developed and developing countries, it is tragic that an institution like this is being setup. The international best practice is to encourage self-regulation by the press.

Maybe it was just a coincidence that the legislature passed a bill, which would drastically curtail press freedom, on the eve of the first multi-party election held on 28th October. Two months earlier a brand new constitution that expressly gave press freedom was adopted. Article 28 of the constitution says: “Everyone has the right to freedom of the press, and other means of communication, including the right to espouse, disseminate and publish news, information, views and ideas. No person shall be compelled to disclose the source of any information that is espoused, disseminated or published by that person”.
However, as regulatory body, the Media Council is set to regulate and monitor the press. It has the power to investigate complaints, oversee the behaviour of the news media, and where the council finds appropriate send cases to the courts for trial. In such an environment, the news media would be simply muzzled.

It is surprising that media organizations, civil society NGOs are oblivious to the looming threat on press freedom in the Maldives. None of the political parties have expressed concern, while the Maldives Media Association appears to be in hibernation.

Following excerpts would give you an idea of how the democracies see the role of independent press councils.
On the importance of a free and independent press council, the Australian press council says:

Statutory controls would undermine the freedom of the press - and would not be so successful in raising standards. The Council recognises that, in a country like Australia with no express guarantee of freedom of speech, or of the press, a tort of privacy would be unworkable and may lead to an unacceptable infringement on press freedom. It would be of potential use only to the rich and powerful who would be prepared to use the Courts to enforce their rights - and would be misused by the corrupt to stop newspapers from reporting in the public interest. Self regulation has none of the problems of the law - yet still provides a system in which publications are committed to the highest possible ethical standards.

In Britain the government also supports self-regulation. According to Culture Minister Margaret Hodge the UK government believes that there is no case for Government intervention to regulate the print media:

“The Government supports self-regulation of the press and believes that there is no case for Government intervention. Accordingly, the Press Complaints Commission already is a body which is independent of Government. … We maintain a watching brief on this issue and are generally satisfied that the Press Complaints Commission’s Code of Practice is both adequate and appropriate for its purpose.”