Civil Court has scheduled a hearing of the MVR 500,000 fine levied on RaajjeTV by Maldives Broadcasting Commission (MBC) for Thursday.

The hearing is set for 1345 hrs and in the hearing the state will respond to the case. The case is in Civil Court’s dispute resolution stage.

The case will be sent to trial if it fails the dispute resolution stage.

RaajjeTV was penalized for broadcasting a statement made by Thimarafushi Constituency MP Mohamed Musthafa on July 28th during a live program.

The letter said that MP Musthafa had on the program, spoken in a manner that encouraged to overthrow the current Government, encourage to carry out an illegal act, encourage a loss to the legal government and encouraged action that negatively impacted on national security and the safety and security of the elected President of the Maldives. The fine, the letter said, was levied after investigating the case.

In a statement released by the station, RaajjeTV stated that the fine imposed a gross violation and abuse of the Constitution, motivated purely by personal reasons.

The station was previously fined by MVR 200,000 and MVR 1 million. The three fines were levied under the controversial Defamation Act, which many say was launched to shut down RaajjeTV.