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Citizenry enjoying the full benefits of broadcasting.
Mission
To responsibly protect the rights of “freedom of expression” as per the constitution with egalitarianism. To partake in building the nation and fostering democracy. To play a pivotal role in enriching the talents, skills creativeness, and innovativeness of Maldivians. Read More
Broadcasting at a glance…
Maldives Broadcasting Day
4 October
Broadcasting Commission Day
4 April
Broadcasting Commission to monitor broadcast coverage of Presidential Election 2013.
August 12, 2013
Maldives Broadcasting Commission is to monitor content aired by Radio/TV stations during the “Direct Access Time” allocated to the Candidates and “Prime Time” of TV channels. Prime Time for the purpose of elections broadcast monitoring is decided as 20:00 to 23:00hrs daily.
Commission will be monitoring the Direct Access time allocated in accordance with the Elections Act (11/2008) Article 30. According to this Article all broadcasting stations are required to allocate Direct Access time equally between all Presidential Candidates. Also Direct Access time given to one particular candidate should not exceed 10% of Direct Access time allocated to each candidate. Commission has requested all broadcasting stations to submit information on Direct Access time for monitoring purposes.
In monitoring Prime Time, Broadcasting Commission will monitor the time allocated to the topic of Government, Elections Commission and the four presidential candidates; also the tone of the coverage will be monitored as being positive, neutral or negative. Prime time of total 10 TV Channels will be monitored. These channels include the Public Service Broadcaster TVM and Commercial Broadcasters RaajeTV, DhiTV, VTV, DhiFMplus, SunTVplus, Channel13, Channel One, Jazeera TV and Yell TV.
Based on the findings from the monitoring the Commission has also decided to issue a report related to coverage of broadcasters during the 2013 Presidential Elections period.
The 2013 Presidential Election is the first presidential election since the inception of the Broadcasting Commission. A special task force has been formed consisting of staff members of the Commission to monitor broadcast content. Commission’s working hours has also been extended from 8:00 to 16:00hrs and staff will be working overtime on Saturdays from 10:00hrs to 15:00hrs.
Commission has also published a guideline on broadcasting political content during the elections period which was formulated by a US media expert with assistance from the US Embassy in Sri Lanka. This guideline has been circulated among broadcasters and stakeholders and has been forwarded to be published on the Government Gazette.