On September 16, 2025, the Maldives People’s Majlis passed the ‘Maldives Media and Broadcasting Bill’, amid protests by journalists and opposition parties accusing the bill of controlling and limiting freedom of expression and speech.

The bill was passed at an extraordinary sitting of People’s Majlis, the seventh special sitting of 2025, with 60 votes in favour against one vote not in favour. All votes in favour came from the ruling party, People’s National Congress (PNC), holding a supermajority in the parliament. Whereas, among the prominent opposition to the ruling party, the Maldives Democratic Party (MDP), holding 12 votes, did not take part in the voting at all.

The bill was critiqued by independent journalists and media houses of the island nation, ever since it was introduced by the Thulhaadhoo MP Abdul Hannan Aboobakr, an independent lawmaker oriented with the ruling government, PNC, on August 18, 2025.

The condemnation from within Maldives garnered immediately with the Maldives Journalists Association (MJA) alleging the bill was designed to “completely kill" the press freedom in the Maldives. The bill drew comparison from the Media and Broadcasting Bill introduced by MP Aboobakr in November 2024, which had to be withdrawn after harsh criticism from Maldivian journalists and media houses.

The backlash to the bill is due to the power given to the new seven-member ‘Maldives Media and Broadcasting Commission’. The bill proposed to dissolve the Maldives Media Council (MMC) and the Maldives Broadcasting Commission (BroadCom), and constitute the Maldives Media and Broadcasting Commission.

MMC, a state agency, established through a bill that was drafted taking into account four models namely; the Australian Press Council, British Press Complaints Commission, Press Council of India, and the Human Rights Commission of Maldives. BroadCom, another state agency, was established under the Broadcast Act to........

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