High Court withholds Civil Court judgment in MBC suit

The High Court of the Maldives has issued an order withholding the Civil Court judgment to handover full control and managerial responsibilities and powers over the Television Maldives and the Voice of Maldives to the Maldives Broadcasting Corporation (MBC).

High Court order issued today stated that the decision of Civil Court pronounced on the 21st of May this year should be withheld until the High Court decided or ordered otherwise. The Order, signed by Chief Judge Hon. Ahmed Shareef, said that legal and equitable considerations in relation to the case necessitated withholding the Civil Court judgment, on the basis of reasons given by Maldives National Broadcasting Corporation (MNBC).

MNBC, a 100 per cent government owned enterprise currently controls and manages Television Maldives and Voice of Maldives. However, a parliamentary act has established the MBC as an Independent Corporation to manage the two media outlets that have for years been operated by the government. The judgment of the Civil Court, pronounced by Judge Aisha Shujoon, had ordered MNBC to hand over the control of Television Maldives and Voice of Maldives, including all the property, management-apparatus and staff, to the MBC within 20 days of the judgment. However, the MNBC has refused to obey the court judgment, and has been running the Television Maldives (now called the MNBC One) and the Voice of Maldives.

The government refused to hand over the two state media outlets to MBC, claiming that the corporation was a politically motivated body, that was determined to play against the government, and appealed the case to the High Court, and stated that the outlets would be handed over to MBC only after all legal actions against the Civil Court judgment were exhausted.

Many, including opposition political parties and independent commissions in the country and foreign stakeholders have continuously expressed concern over the government’s refusal to hand over the state media outlets to the statutory body created to manage them, and the Civil Court judgment in favor of MBC has been met with widespread satisfaction.