Maldives Media Council (MMC) requests President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih not to ratify the recently passed Evidence Bill mandating journalists reveal their sources.
The bill, proposed to the parliament by the government, was passed on June 30. It gives the state with the power to order journalists to reveal their sources in the issues of national security or terrorism. However, the right to not reveal sources is a right that is protected in the Maldivian constitution.
Expressing concern over the bill, MMC requested to the President on Thursday to resend it to the Parliament without ratifying it as it violates the right to freedom of the press in its current state.
The president has the power to send bills back to the parliament without ratifying them, even if the parliament passes them.
Journalists and Maldives Journalists Association (MJA) have also protested against the Evidence Bill. Speaker of the Parliament Mohamed Nasheed has said that there is no other way forward other than to ask for the parliamentarian's vote for the bill that day.
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