Deputy Home Minister labels arrested journalists as "criminal offenders"

 

Deputy Minister at the Ministry of Home Affairs, Ahmed Siddeeq, has said that those arrested from the press freedom protest on Sunday were not journalists as “journalists would never participate in a political protest”.

He said this via a tweet posted on Tuesday, which included a picture labeling the arrested journalists as “criminal offenders”.

It is noteworthy that journalists such as Fazeena Ahmed of Haveeru Online, who was awarded the Journalist of the Year in 2015, are seen in the said picture.

Home Minister Umar Naseer had also recently said that those arrested from the protest were “people portraying themselves as journalists”.

The opposition MDP had, on Sunday, condemned Umar Naseer’s comments, which appeared to condone the excessive force used by Police and Military against peaceful demonstrators, while stating that journalists were protesting on instructions of the MDP as a means to engineer photo opportunities to present to the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group.

Maldives Police Service has maintained that the journalists were arrested from the protest for obstructing police duty. 

source-  https://raajje.mv/61985