Maldivian Journalists. Screw you.

I have always believed there are two things that'll ultimately bring about the downfall of our hard-won democracy - a broken education system, and an utterly incompetent media.


Reading Dhona's blog today about her harrowing experience at MNBC brings back this old lament - why oh why can't the Maldives have proper journalists?

Dhona writes about the MNBC, "...most journalists highlighted facts only to give some structure to their own opinions. One thing I was clear of that most Mnbc journalists could not separate opinions from facts" - which sounds exactly right. It corroborates perfectly with anecdotes I've heard from my friends in the media.

Now, the media's lack of spine was understandable during the Gayoom regime, where the occasional publication that strayed into any controversy found itself shut down, and their editorial team behind bars.

But given the constitutionally guaranteed press freedom in the last few years, the media's pitiful performance is plainly unforgivable.

It appears that a lot of this has to do with the old guard retaining their place - the same lackeys who were subservient propagandists for the Gayoom regime now occupy power positions in media organizations, and keep crowing about their new found love for journalism.

I am told that even when newbie journalists attempt to put out a decent, balanced story - the higher ups in the established media rewrite/censor it in a manner most conducive to their present interests.

Misinformation is rampant - even if it is done by subtle tricks of omission.

For instance, one former Haveeru journalist revealed to me the practice of the paper dutifully reporting news wire stories of dead Palestinians, but simultaneously ignoring cables about Israeli casualties - presumably because it didn't neatly fit into the narrative that has been presented to Maldivians for decades.

Even a deaf, blind man would gag on the nauseating commentary on DhiTV - a TV channel that exists purely for opposition propaganda purposes, while pretending to be a "news" station.

Long time readers of my blog would remember the now-defunct The Voice.

One day, out of the blue, someone told me that this news website (that I'd never heard of before) had 'banned' my blog.

Burning with curiosity as to how that is even possible, I checked the link - and found out there was a section of their website that displayed RSS feeds from local blogs - and the editor had apparently removed my blog from this list.

It turned out that I'd published a blog post ridiculing the average Maldivians' irrational, over-the-top reactions to the mere mention of the word "Christian".

In an irony too hilarious to make up, the satirically-challenged editor saw the word "Christian" in the title of my post and promptly decided to 'ban' my obviously infidel blog.

HAHHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Though I didn't realize it at the time, I later met the said editor at a 'Democracy fair' held at Dharubaaruge in Male; she was manning a stall giving away the print version of her newspaper.

What bothered me no end, however, was that this woman also turned out to be the President of the South Asian Free Media Association's Maldives chapter. :-S

Picture that. The president of the local "Free Media" association who censors content that she finds disagreeable (albeit, for hilarious reasons).

So, why are so many Maldivian journalists such incompetent dickwads?

At least part of the reason is certainly that Maldivian media - until pretty recently - didn't even have any established procedures, or a code of conduct. (And now that they have one, our media stations don't order for toilet paper anymore.)

The other, greater, reason is perhaps that our local media exists purely at the mercy of rich politicians and businessmen whose only desire is to dictate the narrative of the day in their favour.

This was confirmed to me by a senior member of the Maldives Media Council, who admitted during a closed-door meeting that there isn't a single 'financially viable media' in the country - meaning they're all bank-rolled by selfish interests.

His statement was made in response to an accusation about the media's perceived misogyny and irresponsible, sensationalist reporting of cases like gang rape and aborted fetuses. TV "interviewers" would walk down the streets shoving microphones at pedestrians, asking for their opinion on how these "murderous women" - not "the accused" and never a mention of a man's involvement - should be dealt with, inevitably drawing harsh, negative reactions which would then be publicly broadcast to the whole nation.

His argument was that there was too much competition in the media, so the incentive to grab eye-balls at any cost was just too high for them to follow any basic journalistic integrity. There simply wasn't enough money or resources to care about ethics, principles - or depiction of women, for that matter.

When challenged on this point by another attendee as to how media stations like Radio Atoll somehow find all the money and resources in the world do the polar opposite and demonize women, and threaten them with hell-fire and brimstone round the clock, no immediate answer was forthcoming.

I've spoken to different editors of the Minivan News website, and they frankly agreed that it is really hard, despite the best intentions, to remain truly independent. At least one editor acknowledges a reluctance to publish any form of editorial content.

Ideally, in a society with a self-respecting media, the ones fighting the battle against political puppetry would be journalists themselves.

Unfortunately, our journalists often reveal themselves to be political hacks; the Police have in the past reported instances of media personnel sent to cover political protests often turning into hooligans themselves.

That's the only time you hear organizations like MJA and MMC - suddenly aware of their journalistic rights (if never their duties) - come out smacking of self-importance, and blaming everyone else; criticizing the government, condemning the police, appealing to foreign agencies, whining about their precious little rights being violated.

This is the reason why I could never sympathize with these pretentious assholes. None of them have a word to say on poor journalistic ethics and terrible standards of reporting (except when it offends some mullah, as in the massage parlour 'sting operation' devised by the bright geniuses at Sun Magazine), but the moment someone criticizes one of their journalists, they start crying foul.

Much more importantly - they have nothing to say about the rampant media censorship in the Maldives.

News websites like Haveeru and Miadhu have repeatedly demonstrated that they have no respect for readers opinions, and heavily restrict comments - which is tantamount to censorship, and gives them the ability to unethically shape the discussion as they see fit.

Not once have either of these networks ever published a single comment from me.

For whatever reasons, Minivan News - to their credit - appears to be the only news website in the Maldives that appears to uphold the freedom of expression of their commentators.

As a result, the only media space where you'd find the existence of vocally secular Maldivians, non-Muslim Maldivians - and indeed, any kind of Maldivians that criticize Islamists - is in the comments section of Minivan News.

And apparently, this open discussion does not go down very well with all sections of the general public because of the unfortunate side-effects from a strange avian disease that afflicts many of our citizens.

The Ostrich syndrome.

I once attended a public meeting held by Education Ministry officials at the Islamic Center to address the controversy over making Dhivehi and Islam subjects optional to senior secondary students.

The room was packed with identical, bearded clones, led by their golden shepherd Shaheem, all of whom were doused in discontent.

One self-proclaimed "experienced journalist" stood up and complained to the Education minister about "one" news website that was publishing 'anti-Islamic comments' - and the pre-programmed bots in the audience roared in approval.

Oh the sickening sight of a self-proclaimed journalist demanding clampdowns on press freedom, and the public supporting it!

An argument could be made that these half-wit journalists are not being given sufficient training - but then, this argument would be bullshit.

In fact, a lot of funds have been allocated by several organizations towards training local journalists - however, judging by the quality of reporting from the crème de la crème of these newly 'well-trained' journalists, I imagine the organizations might as well shredded the money and shat on it.

A journalist friend and trainer once told me about the hopeless mental shackles that many journalism students have enslaved themselves in - unable to think outside the decades long narrative they've grown up listening, unable to grasp the concept of impartiality, and downright indignant at the idea of keeping personal prejudices out of a news report.

So when Dhona writes about pathetic journalistic standards at MNBC, and the all-too-common sexual harassment by the upholders of public integrity, and the narrow mindsets and culture of censorship by the very people whose sole mission is supposed to be to expand the horizons of public thinking and generate debate, one is left wondering - is there any hope at all for these 'journalists' that plague our dysfunctional media?



~Peace!