Media4Democracy Completes Maldives Media Assessment to Strengthen Freedom of Expression and Democracy

Maldives, May 2019 – Media4Democracy has completed a two-week in-field assessment of the Maldives media sector. The assessment focused on the broad institutional dimensions through a political economy assessment approach.

Conducted by consortium partner European Partnership for Democracy (EPD), the assessment provided an analysis and recommendations to the EU Delegation on how to better support media and associated institutions – to fortify freedom of expression, media pluralism and, in turn, democracy.

EPD has provided operational recommendations considering how an overall strategic approach might be undertaken. This could include actions to build media capacity, support legal and regulatory frameworks as well as economic and journalism education, while taking measures to counter the spread of hate speech on social media that has within this context put professional journalists at risk.

Media4Democracy is an EU-funded Technical Assistance Facility strengthening the European Union Delegations’ ability to implement the EU Human Rights Guidelines on Freedom of Expression Online and Offline. The mission and assessment will support the EU Delegation to Maldives broad and coherent implementation of the EU Guidelines on Freedom of Expression and help them to identify, design and implement appropriate near-, medium- and long-term actions.

A similar assessment is scheduled to be undertaken for Sri Lanka in the coming months.