21 October 2025.
Between late August and mid-September, the parliament of the Maldives, or People’s Majlis, rushed into law the Maldives Media and Broadcasting Regulation Act. The whole process involved minimal public consultation and attracted widespread criticism from both local stakeholders and international human rights organisations. In response to a request from local stakeholders, the Centre for Law and Democracy has analysed the Act against international human rights standards, and it is today releasing its report, Maldives: Analysis of Media and Broadcasting Regulation Act. The Analysis calls for the whole Act to be repealed and a process of consultation to be conducted before any such legislation is again introduced. The Analysis also makes a number of more specific recommendations for reform of the Act to bring it into line with international standards.
“It is most unfortunate that the Maldives has rushed ahead to adopt this very flawed law, rather than having engaged in a proper consultative process around it,” said Toby Mendel, Executive Director of CLD. “This sort of legislation, which has very profound implications for freedom of expression and media freedom, needs to be designed carefully, taking into account local needs and perspectives.”
A few key recommendations, from among the many in the Analysis, are as follows:
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- The definitions of different media actors in the Act should be narrowed considerably.
- The complicated system of content restrictions should be collapsed into a single code of conduct or system of professional regulation, this should be transformed into a co-regulatory system rather than the current statutory approach, and unduly limiting content restrictions should be removed or amended.
- Far more needs to be done to ensure the independence of the regulator, the Maldives Media and Broadcasting Commission.
- The regulatory requirements imposed on the media should be relaxed.
The Analysis is available here. An unofficial English translation of the Act is available here.
For further information, please contact:
Toby Mendel
Executive Director, Centre for Law and Democracy
toby@law-democracy.org
+1 902 431-3686
www.law-democracy.org
X: @Law_Democracy
BlueSky: @law-democracy.bsky.social
LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/company/centre-for-law-and-democracy
