MPs reject dissolving media council

MPs voted 53-1 against a recommendation by the Finance Committee to dissolve the Maldives Media Council and transfer its mandate to the Maldives Broadcasting Commission (MBC).

While the vote was taken on July 4, the result was announced at today’s sitting of parliament.  It had not been officially declared due to disorder in the chamber that forced the sitting on July 4 to be called off.

The Finance Committee, chaired by Deputy Speaker Ahmed Nazim, recommended dissolving the media council after studying its audit report, which suggested that the independent regulatory body was not functioning as envisaged in the law.

Also at today’s sitting, MPs voted 33-18 to send a bill on freedom of assembly proposed by Independent MP Mohamed ‘Kutti’ Nasheed to a seven-member ad hoc committee for further review.

The list of MPs approved for the committee were MP ‘Reeko’ Moosa Manik from the opposition Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP), MP Moosa Zameer from the People’s Alliance (PA), MP Visam Ali and MP Abdulla Abdul Raheem from the Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party (DRP), Independent MP Ahmed Amir, MP Riyaz Rasheed from the Dhivehi Qaumee Party (DQP) and Abdulla Jabir from the Jumhooree Party (JP).

MPs meanwhile voted unanimously in favour of the Maldives becoming a member of the SAARC (South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation) Convention on Cooperation on Environment following a report submitted by the National Development Committee of parliament.

Speaker Abdulla Shahid adjourned today’s sitting at 2.30pm after quorum was lost during a debate on a report submitted by the Economic Committee after studying amendments proposed to the Tourism Act.

Today’s sitting was interrupted seven times due to loss of quorum before Speaker Abdulla Shahid brought the sitting to a close after quorum was lost for an eighth time.