The journalists, which the government said were released late on Sunday, have been ordered to report to police for questioning over the demonstration held outside President Abdulla Yameen’s office in the capital Male.
“We were told that we disobeyed police orders and they want to question us further,” Zaheena Rasheed, an editor of the private Maldives Independent website, said after she was released.
Police used pepper spray to break up Sunday’s protest against the government’s move to criminalise defamation, which media fear will be used to stifle freedom of speech. A draft bill proposes heavy fines and jail terms for offenders.
The government said in a statement the demonstration was broken up because journalists were gathered in “a high security zone, where protesting is prohibited”, adding that the group was
detained for 10 hours in total.
Political turmoil in the Maldives has dented its image as a peaceful paradise for well-heeled honeymooners. The Indian Ocean nation adopted multiparty democracy in 2008 after decades of autocratic rule, but has faced international criticism over a recent erosion of rights.
Rasheed said the released media met yesterday with US ambassador Atul Keshap, who was visiting from Sri Lanka where he is based.
The journalists raised concerns about press freedom in the nation, gripped by turmoil since the toppling of its first democratically elected leader Mohamed
Nasheed in February 2012.
“Appreciated the opportunity to meet with Maldives journalists arrested during Sunday’s protest,” Keshap said on Twitter, posting a photo of himself with them.
Sunday’s protesters were also attempting to pressure authorities to probe the mysterious disappearance of a reporter in 2014. The demonstrators also denounced a court decision to temporarily close the nation’s oldest newspaper over an
ownership dispute.
Maldivian media outlets and their journalists have been facing a variety of threats.
“Media offices have been attacked and there’s been numerous death threats against journalists, both over text messages and also in person, as well as assaults,” said Rasheed. “There’s been no justice for any attack on journalists and media offices.”
The South Asian archipelago nation’s oldest newspaper, Haveeru, was effectively forced closed by a court order last week.
This came as the ruling party of President Yameen Abdul Gayoom has put forward legislation that would inflict fines of up to $324,000 on those convicted of defamation. Those who fail to pay the penalty would be jailed for one year.
Newspapers and websites which publish defamatory content could face revocation of their licenses.
The draft law also says the constitutional right to freedom of speech can be narrowed or restricted if an expression contradicts a tenet of Islam, threatens national security, defames or causes damage to an individual, or violates societal norms.
“This move by the government is aimed at silencing critics and weakening the country’s already fragile media,” said the International
Federation of Journalists.