Freedom or Control: The Media Bill’s Hight Stakes
The Maldives is facing crossroads in media freedom. The people’s majilis is now considering the media and broadcasting regulation bill, which is being presented as an essential step toward modernizing media oversight. Though it could end up being one of the most damaging blows to press freedom in our fledging democracy. Presented in august 2025 by MP Abdul Hannan Aboobakuru, the legislation suggests combining the Maldives broadcasting commission and the Maldives media council into one entity. It seems reasonable to combine Broadcom and MMC into single organization. Theoretically streamlining institutions could increase supervision and efficiency. The issue though is with the exceptional powers the measure gives the ne...