In between planning and conducting our workshops we’ve spent time getting to know the Maldivian media scene. After all, it’s important to for us to know what we need to emphasize in our media training workshops. We figured that the best way to do this is by talking with local journalist and others with knowledge of the field, so that’s just what we’ve done. Meetings, meetings and more meetings! It has been really interesting to hear how the media has developed in this country since freedom of speech was instigated here 1.5 years ago.

During our three weeks here we’ve met up with…

-The British editor of Minivan News, JJ Robinson, as well as their main reporter Ahmed Nazeer, a motivated and experienced journalist (despite being only 18 years old!).

-Representatives from the Maldives Journalist Association, including the association’s president Hiriga Zahir.

-Staff from the president’s press office

-The ministers of information and tourism.

-Various local journalists working for such TV stations as DhiTV, VTV, TVM (TV Maldives) and reporters working for a selection of Dhivehi-language newspapers.

-The dean of the Faculty of Arts at the Maldives College of Higher Education

-And many everyday people working in various fields, consuming Maldivian news

The funny/confusing thing about having all these meetings is that everyone seems to tell us different things! Others say the media here is about as free as it could be (considering it’s a Muslim country and saying anything negative about religion won’t be tolerated). Others say that the government is constantly trying to limit this freedom by pressuring the media to not say anything negative about the government.

Also, almost everyone in media is complaining that the Maldivian audience sees their particular media outlet as being biased, either supporting the ruling party or the opposition — well, that’s what you get when your media outlet (as well as every other publication/TV channel in the country) is owned by a politician! It’s hard for people to perceive you as being objective when the owner of your TV channel is a well-known opposition parliament member or a minister from the ruling party. Just sayin’.

Ahhhh, only in the Maldives. We’ve come to the conclusion that this just might be one of the most polarized countries in the world, when it comes to just about everything. Everyone has their own strong opinion, and it’s always either A or Z -never something in the middle, like the letter L.

But then again, they do say that young people are the most idealistic and the least likely to compromise as they only believe what they want to believe. And the Maldives is one of the youngest democracies in the world. So I guess it’s only natural that its a country of political extremes.

Oh, another person we’ve encountered in the Maldivian media scene is President Nasheed himself! We saw him at a press event in the island of Maafushi. He was there to open up a remodeled school for “notorious” children, as the Maldivians put it (i.e. kids behaving badly). Here you can see Mariana in action, snappin’ away!