MJA Condemns Death Threats and Coordinated Smear Campaign Against Journalists Over Rasmalé Coverage
A coordinated online harassment campaign against Maldivian journalists covering the controversial Eagle Hills Rasmalé project has culminated in serious threats of physical harm, injury, and death, prompting an urgent police complaint from the Maldives Journalists Association (MJA).
In a formal complaint addressed to Commissioner of Police Ahmed Mohamed, the journalists’ association called on law enforcement to launch an immediate criminal investigation, conduct a security risk assessment, and provide police protection for the targeted reporters and their families.
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The wave of abuse erupted after a cohort of Maldivian reporters travelled to the United Arab Emirates for a media familiarisation tour organised by UAE-based developer Eagle Hills regarding the Rasmalé reclamation scheme.
According to the MJA, social media actors have circulated reporters’ photographs and produced targeted videos designed to incite public hostility.
The campaign has subjected individual journalists to intense verbal abuse, branding them “traitors,” “Zionists,” and “Jews,” before escalating into explicit threats of violence and death over the framing of their dispatches from Dubai.
The association underscored that while working reporters adhere to the editorial policies of their respective media organisations, targeting individual professionals with personal threats for carrying out assignments is wholly unacceptable.
The escalating hostility has instilled severe fear among the affected reporters and created credible safety risks for their households. The union also noted that digital intimidation against local press figures had already been accelerating prior to the UAE visit.
Alongside its appeal to law enforcement, the MJA issued a directive to media owners and editors nationwide, urging strict adherence to the Journalists’ Code of Ethics. The association called for a clear, transparent distinction between independent news coverage and sponsored or promotional material, warning that unlabelled commercial junkets undermine public credibility and place frontline reporters in direct jeopardy.
