Minivan News Journalist Blacklisted For Two Years

Phillip Wellman, a journalist for this website, has been forced to leave the country and has been blacklisted for two years. He joins Minivan News Managing Editor, Paul Roberts, on the government’s blacklist for foreign journalists.

The Maldivian Government’s move to deport Wellman came just five days after he returned to the Maldives from a previous expulsion. He will now be unable to return to the country until 2009.

He was originally expelled on November 3, 2006 along with a freelance photographer working for Britain’s Guardian newspaper. “They will be welcome in the Maldives in two weeks’ time,” said Chief Government Spokesman, Mohamed Hussein Shareef in November.

Wellman then returned on January 15, but after only two days in the country he was summoned to see immigration officials and was given 48 hours to leave the country.

The government first said they would need three days to make a decision on whether Wellman was allowed back into the country. But when he arrived at Male’ airport, he was informed he would not be able to return for two years.

At that point, imigration officials asked him to sign a document. They gave him no time to read it, and told him to hurry in order not to miss his flight. Wellman refused to sign the document until he knew what it said. At that point he was threatened with “detention.”

Wellman eventually missed the flight and left on the next one available. Not one immigration official knew exactly why Wellman was being deported. The only reason they could cite was that he did not have the proper authorisation to enter the country. He entered the country on a tourist visa, awaiting the renewal of his work permit from the Employment Ministry.

He says he believes the decision to throw him out has come directly from the President, Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, via Immigration Controller, Ibrahim Shafiu, who he describes as Gayoom’s “right hand man”.

Shafiu, who is also a DRP Special Majlis member appointed by the President, said Wellman does not have “permission” to be in the country. Minivan News contacted the government before his arrival to inform them of his intention to return and received no objection to the proposal.

Wellman, an American citizen, was informed of his deportation the day after a U.S. delegation, including Ambassador to the Maldives, Robert O. Blake, left the country.

Managing Editor of this website, Paul Roberts, gave this response to the news: “Time and again the Government of Maldives displays its contempt towards press freedom. In light of Phillip’s deportation, it is difficult to see the reform process as much more than well packaged public relations.”

British based human rights NGO Friends of Maldives has also condemned the deportation. “The Government of Maldives is once more showing its lack of commitment to freedom of expression in the Maldives and seems intent on disrupting the work of independent media,” said the organisation in a statement released yesterday on its website.

“Abdulla Saeed (Fahala), Minivan Daily reporter is still serving a life sentence for trumped up drug charges, and Ahmed Abbas, well-known artist and political cartoonist is serving a 6 months sentence for a quote he gave to Minivan Daily,” FOM said.

Press freedom organisation, Reporters Without Borders said in November: “The harassment of Minivan and MinivanNews.com journalists must stop…We once again point out that an opposition media has as much right to work freely as a pro-government media,” the organisation said.

Wellman’s deportation comes only days after the publication of a damning 2006 annual report by the South Asian Press Commission (SAPC), which said the Maldives “continues to be a journalist’s prison.”

“The continued detention and house arrest of a number of journalists is an issue of serious concern, as are the charges against five journalists and editors working for Minivan, which would appear to constitute a concerted effort by the authorities to target this publication,” said the report.

The SAPC’s study referred specifically to an incident in which Minivan News’ offices in Colombo were raided by Sri Lankan Interpol officers on a false tip-off from Police Chief, Adam Zahir, that the office was being used to store weapons.

“The Mission deplored the abuse of Interpol against exiled journalists and overseas Maldivian media, the blocking of Dhivehi Observer and Maldives Culture websites, and the jamming of the shortwave frequency of Minivan Radio.” The report added.

Minivan News has recently been working hard to assert greater independence and produce more objective and balanced news. The website has received much praise for its efforts and is seen by people within both the government and the opposition as the premier English language publication on the Maldives, read by many influential members of the international community.

The Maldives currently ranks 144th in the Reporters Without Borders Press Freedom Index, slightly lower than Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo, but higher than Russia and Iraq.