RaajjeTV has announced its decision to re-open the station’s Dignity Fund, following the decision by the Broadcasting Commission to fine the station by MVR 1 million; a case which was investigated by the commission on its own accord.

Referring to the content on which the channel was penalized, CEO Fiyaz Moosa said the video will clearly show that no individual was defamed. As such, he said the penalty was an unjust one and part of a timeline of attacks laid out against the station. COO assured the channel will, in spite of the penalties, continue their commitment to fair, ethical and transparent reportage.

RaajjeTV was penalized by MVR 1 million last Thursday over speech broadcast as part of a live coverage. The content in question involved a live broadcast of a rally held by Maldivian United Opposition in MDP headquarters on 26th October 2016. In the rally, a guest speaker had expressed his sentiments, which had been quoted in the report sent in by the Commission.

“Take a look at any of the projects started out by Abdullah Yameen. Few projects such as the pigeon park was completed”, “there are no airports, flats, airports of any other projects created by him”, “over the space of three years, how many billion Rufiyaa was handed over by the state coffers to him, nothing done” and “we had received nothing but theft, corruption and pain” were the statements made by the speaker which the Broadcasting Commission deemed as having infringed on the President’s dignity.

The letter sent to the channel was signed by Broadcasting Commission’s President Mohamed Shaheeb, a veteran journalist. The letter said that RaajjeTV had violated clause 10 subsection (a) (1) and (2) of the Anti-Defamation and Freedom of Expression Bill and that the Commission was well within its mandate to carry out this investigation.

The MVR 1 million penalty came just hours after the channel paid up the previous fine of MVR 200,000.