MMC’s President Mustafa sacked from PSM

Maldives Media Council (MMC)’s President Ahmed Mustafa was let go from his job at the state-owned Public Service Media (PSM) last night.

A senior official of PSM said that action was taken against a senior employee of the company due to their conduct.

Although they did not specify what action was taken, Mihaaru News has obtained confirmation of Mustafa’s dismissal.

At the time of being fired, Mustafa, who has been with PSM for the past 30 years, was in the company’s news operations department.

Although PSM has not confirmed why Mustafa was let go, the issue of PSM live broadcasting the "Skeelan" documentary by 'Adhadhu' online, which won MMC's investigative journalism award, has been criticised on social media. The documentary was about President Dr. Mohamed Muizzu's step-mother, who makes serious allegations against the president in it.

The documentary, which aired during last year's presidential election campaign, has been denied by the President.

While accusations about property were also made by Skeelan, First Lady Sajidha Mohamed, at the time, said that property was distributed by the Family Court as per Skeelan's wishes. She explained that Skeelan got all the property she requested for from President Muizzu and at the Family and Court.

"She wanted [it] only one way. That is everything in Sri Lanka and all the money in Bank of Ceylon," Sajidha said, on 28th September, speaking at a campaign event in Dh. Meedhoo.

While the documentary was aired on PSM during the MMC award ceremony, PSM issued a statement last night accusing MMC of intentionally broadcasting content that violated the channel's content rules.

The statement said that a video was shown during the ceremony which contradicted PSM's editorial content and general standards of journalism.

The award categories and the journalists nominated for the awards will be known to MMC officials in advance, said PSM, adding that videos show in PSM's live coverage must be compliant with its editorial policies.

"The company believes that MMC's sudden screening of the video mentioned above was premeditated to deliberately air the content in violation with PSM's editorial policies, and as such strongly condemns it," the statement said.