Majlis passes to abolish defamation as a criminal offence

Tuesday, November 24th, 2009

23maj3In yesterday’s People’s Majlis session, amendment proposed by the government to abolish defamation as a criminal offence was passed by the Majlis.

While the government proposed to abolish articles 150- 166 of Penal Code which criminalizes defamation, the Social Affairs Committee which evaluated this amendment Bill recommended to not abolish these articles.

Speaking on behalf of the committee, South Fuvahmulak constituency member Abdullah Maseeh said that the committee reached this decision after consulting with from Prosecutor General Ahmed Muizz, President of Judicial Service Commission Abdul Ghanee Mohamed, Minister of Islamic Affairs Dr Abdul Majeed Abdul Baaree, State Minister of Islamic Affairs Shiekh Mohamed Shaheem Ali Saeed and the Attorney General Husnu Suood. According to the report, only Husnu Suood supported the abolishment of these articles while the rest of the four officials were against it.

Government’s proposition to abolish said articles was accepted by some Majlis members as Mid Henveiru constituency member Ali Azim of Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party (DRP) proposed to abolish the same articles proposed by the government and it was seconded by South Henveiru constituency member Haamid Abdul Gaffoor of MDP.

When this proposition was put to vote, 33 members voted in favor of abolishing it from the 41 who participated in the vote. 8 members voted against it. By doing so, majority of members went against the recommendation of the committee.

Some members who opposed this move expressed their concern over decriminalizing defamation. They said this was happening at a time when defamation was taken very lightly by people.

Some members said that by decriminalizing defamation, the law was clearly going againt Islamic Shariah and stated that it was very worrying that while there was no provision to file a case for defamation as a civil offence, the Bill to decriminalize defamation has been passed.

Members who supported the amendment said that the amendment was in line with Islamic principles.

The Maldives Journalists Association (MJA) earlier this month had urged the Majlis members to pass the same amendment which decriminalizes defamation. MJA stressed that transparency and good governance can be encouraged if articles criminalizing defamation gets abolished.

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