Youth Ministry will be mediator in releasing funds for media: Minister

The Minister of Youth Empowerment, Information and Arts Ibrahim Waheed (Asward) announced today that the Youth Ministry will not have any role in releasing funds for the media.

The Maldives Media and Broadcasting Commission stated today that with the regulation reform last week regarding state financial aid to be given to media registered for more than a year, 41 media's are eligible for state financial aid.

The decision has been made to release the funds via the Youth Ministry.

As per the publicized list, the media to receive the most in financial aid will be Sangu Media, of which Youth Minister Waheed has shares in.

When a journalist asked as to the legitimacy of the list and whether it was done in the best manner during today's media briefing, the minister said that even though the ministry had begun the work initially, he believes that it is not the best course of action as was pointed out by the media.

And so, the work was completed after it was handed over to the Media Commission, said the minister.

"We send the list that was determined by the Media Commission without making any additions or removals. When this was done by the ministry before, we had no part to play in it. The ministry has no power to change the list at all," said the minister.

"The government has no part to play in such matters. We send the list to the Finance Ministry upon request to enforce the Media Commission's decision. If they send the list to us today, we will send it on the same day to the Finance Ministry. We would not waste a single minute."

Minister Waheed said today that even though they have only received the accumulated point list for the media, they have requested for additional information so that they can proceed with the proper course of action.

The role of the ministry in this is as a mediator, which is to acquire details and send it to the Finance Ministry for fund allocation to the media, said the minister.

The Media Commission stated that 57 media had created a profile via their portal when the opportunity to apply for financial aid was presented after the regulation had been reformed, with 41 media being eligible.

The opportunity was presented to private companies that had been registered and operating uninterrupted since 1st January 2024.

This year's state budget allocated MVR 27 million for media, which is approximately 0.1 percent of the budget's revenue.