Raajje Television has on Friday begun accepting contributions for its efforts to pay off various fines imposed on both the station and its staff.

The station launched its ‘Dignity Fund’ at the Raajje Television’s head office in Malé City, following a MVR 200,000 fine against it over defamation allegations. This same verdict – put forth by the Maldives Broadcasting Commission (MBC) for alleged violation of broadcast regulations – also fined a former journalist with the station by a sum of MVR 50,000.

“The baseless defamation charges are exceptionally frightening, because they aim to choke and silence journalistic expression, a dark predicament” said Raajje Television’s Chief Operating Officer, Hussein Fiyaz, at Friday’s event to launch the fund.

In line with the station’s statement over the fine Fiyaz said on Thursday that the charges were a deliberate attempt to ‘torment’ the station.

“We now know that there is another fine of MVR 800,000, this is political move to deplenish our finances” Fiyaz previously said. 

The story that instigated the defamatory claims was on a sexual abuse case in Hithadhoo, Addu City. The reportage cited the victim’s family, who maintain that the investigation into the case was swayed by a senior employee at the Ministry of Gender.

“Punishing this station broadcasting the piece without relevant institutions conducting a transparent investigation- while the victim’s family consistently maintained that the individual has been influencing the case- is unjustly conducive to allowing individuals in power to punish those who are not” said Raajje Television’s statement said, criticizing the MBC for not referring to the station’s testimonial before imposing the fine.

Two other journalists with the station had been fined by MVR 28,500 for ‘obstruction of justice’ after they were arrest while covering a bomb scare in Malé City, and their cameraman, Adam Zareer, was fined by MVR 3,000 – in what the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) had described as undemocratic and unjust charges.