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Journalists should join campaign for human rights: Dr. Saeed

Sunday, 04 July 2004

Is the government changing its policies to the call of reformers?

It is very positive to see that Dr. Saeed is using his integrity and education for the good of the people. If the hardline characters in the Gayyoom administration does not get in the way of Dr. Saeed's promotion of press freedom in the Maldives, we might still see our rights respected more some time in the near future. We hope this is a sign of good things to come. Our only fear is that after many years of Gayyoom government policy being to pay lip-service to the call for reform, we cannot get exited until we see results, not just words. - Dhivehi Observer

MALE, July 4 (HNS) -- Journalists in Maldives should join in the campaign for human rights, Attorney General Dr. Hassan Saeed told a two-day workshop on reporting human rights.

In the session on freedom of expression, at the workshop held on Wednesday in Male, Saeed said that journalists should inform the public on what rights they have not yet obtained.

“Then only will people know what rights they are entitled to,” said Saeed, whose PhD thesis was on the topic, freedom of expression.

He said that one of the obstacles in people getting their rights was the fact that many were not aware of the rights they were entitled to.

He called upon journalists to demand such rights from the government and policymakers.

Dr. Saeed pointed out that journalists themselves were not aware of their own rights as journalists, which leads to obstacles in practicing journalism to its maximum potential.

He also called on Maldives journalists to do away with self-censorship. Self-censorship is heavily practiced by Maldives journalists, newspapers and magazines for fear of landing in trouble with authorities.

The AG pointed out that the only country which did not have press freedom but which have made great national development was only Singapore. He said that Singapore’s developmental success, regardless of the absence of press freedom, was because salaries were high in Singapore, minimizing the opportunity for corruption.

Dr. Saeed said that press freedom had a direct positive result on national development. He said that evidence pointed to the fact that countries which had less corruption, and which therefore made great strides in economic and social development, were countries with press freedom.

The AG said that if people do not earn an income that can make ends meet, it will pave the way open for corruption.

“A person must be able to live on his or her income,” he stressed, adding that otherwise there will be serious problems.

As an example, he said that a judge, who gets a salary of around Rf4,000 (about US$311) and who is from another island but is stationed in Male', will face serious problems as he cannot even afford to pay rent while living in the capital.