THE MALDIVES
By Hilat Rasheed, Acting Editor, Haveeru Daily
24 February 2003

Maldives has only three daily newspapers, Haveeru Daily, Aafathis Daily and Miadhu Daily.

Haveeru and Aafathis are the oldest surviving daily newspapers, established in 1978 under present Youth and Sports Minister Dr. Mohamed Zahir Hussain and President of the National Council on Linguistic and Historical Research Mr. Abbas Ibrahim respectively.

Miadhu is a relatively new daily newspaper (only five years old) established under present Health Minister Mr. Ahmed Abdulla who was the earlier High Commissioner of Maldives to Sri Lanka.

Though Maldives' constitution expressly protects freedom of speech, in reality freedom of speech has never been upheld, resulting in frequent harassment or arrest of journalists who criticize the government in any kind of literature, be it the press, novels, songs, films or the Internet. Internet websites "unfriendly" to President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom's administration are blocked and firewalled by Maldives only ISP, Dhiraagu which is a telecommunications monopoly company jointly established between Maldives government (which controls 55 percent) and UK's Cable and Wireless PLC.

The non-existence of political parties and the non-existence of separation of powers (in Maldives, the parliament and courts are subject to the executive who is the President) are blamed for stifling freedom of speech in Maldives.

Maldives until 1978 had been a monarchy. The British government, which for about 75 years until 1965 occupied Maldives as a "protectorate", did not by any means establish any democratic traditions in Maldives due to its policy of "non-interference in Maldives internal affairs". Hence, unlike some countries like India or Malaysia, Maldives have never had any democratic traditions, which is directly and indirectly blamed for the lack of freedom of speech in Maldives.

Maldives is an archipelago of 1,190 islands scattered across 90,000 square kilometers of ocean near the southern tip of India. Its 278,000 people are Sunni Muslims living on 180 islands. There are some 80 resort islands as Maldives main source of income is based on tourism.