16 December 2022 Media Rights Monitoring Workshop

The first step is to formulate a media rights monitoring mechanism. MJA and IFJ jointly held a media rights monitoring workshop. The workshop was facilitated by Ujwal Acharya, a Nepal-based expert in media development and media rights who has previously served as IFJ’s South Asia Coordinator. The workshop was held on December 15-16 in Male’, 15 participants attended. This workshop is the first step towards establishing a media rights monitoring mechanism in the Maldives. Through this workshop, MJA volunteers and activists are well informed about the importance of media rights and how to monitor media rights.

8 December 2022

The challenges faced by women journalists in the Maldives have always been ignored. Those issues were never discussed. A special advocacy campaign called 'BAARUVERI' (meaning "Empower") was launched to empower women journalists and reveal the problems they face. Under the campaign, video clips and posters on the issues faced by women journalists were released on social media platforms.

MJA released a report on a survey titled, ‘Gender Disparity in Maldivian Newsrooms’, and urged media houses to implement the report's recommendations. MJA formulated a Gender Disparity Pledge based on those recommendations. Ten newsrooms agreed to implement the pledge and signed it. These newsrooms were given a Gender Disparity Pledge Badge.

A panel discussion was held to discuss the issues faced by women journalists and the challenges and solutions to achieving gender equality in the Maldives’ newsrooms. Many journalists gathered and expressed their views on gender disparity in the Maldives media.

The Women's Council of MJA was established to formulate and implement policies to protect the rights of women journalists. The council's main task will be to provide technical assistance to the newsrooms that signed the Gender Disparity Pledge.