Will Anni ever apologise to flog victims?

When Azra Naseem wrote a story in Minivan News on a leaked video, which depicted a tourist resort duping and abusing guests in a renewal-of-wows ceremony, the international media picked it up and there was a national and international outcry. The Maldives president Mohamed Nasheed wasted no time in contacting the guests in question and issuing apologies and personal invitations to revisit the country.

Of course the scam shouldn't have happened, and those responsible should be brought to justice. But far more outrageous things happen every day in the Maldives and you don't hear a murmur from the government.

In 2009, an 18 year old girl was publicly flogged for zina or sex outside marriage, allegedly punished for a "crime" she was said to have committed when she was a minor. According to the judicial administration's website, 184 people were sentenced to flogging in 2006, 146 of who were women, including under-aged girls. The statistics have since been removed from that agency's website.

The Maldives state, despite being a signatory to the UN's human rights declaration, the convention against torture and its optional protocol, and the convention on elimination of all forms of discrimination against women, continues to abuse women and children even though it is now a member of the UN human rights council.

Although the official flogger in the capital Male died a few years ago and put a temporary halt to the practice, a substitute has been installed since Nasheed's government came into power and there are now hundreds of women in the flog row.

The government is ignoring calls by Amnesty International's for a moratorium on flogging choosing, instead, to forged alliances with people who support gender discrimination and under-age marriage.

The islamic ministry, for instance, has invited openly misogynistic preacher Zakir Naik to the country while state television gave free airtime to another preacher Bilal Philips, who told hundreds of Maldivians that it was alright to marry off under-aged girls, as soon as they reached menses, even if they were only nine years old. By remaining silent on the issue, the Maldives government and the human rights commission showed shocking impunity.

I long for the day when a Maldives president apologises to flog victims, heeds to international human rights obligations and puts an end to state violence against women and children.

Sim Ibrahim Mohamed and journalism

An entity called the Maldives National Journalists Association has come out of wherever it was hiding all these days to attack the recent coverage by Minivan News of the Vilu Reef wedding scam and abuse of tourists. The association described Minivan's reporting of the language used by staff in the leaked video as "outside the standards of professional journalism".

Things become clearer when we discover that the MNJA is headed by Sim Ibrahim Mohamed.

Sim Mohamed's attempt to muzzle coverage of the scam is not difficult to understand, given he also heads MATI and depends on unscrupulous resort owners, who exploit their workers and dupe their guests, for his income.

Sim Mohamed, who has tried hard to stop employment legislation for tourism workers, is known for unintentionally hilarious public statements such as "resort workers have no right to demand their rights" and the recent endorsement of the "island of blonde" tourist resort concept by a Lithuanian company.

Just like his ignorance of the obvious conflict of interest of using one association to protect the corporate interests of another, Sim Ibrahim Mohamed is unlikely to have a clue about what good journalism is.

In all his years at the then TVM newsroom, Sim Ibrahim Mohamed was never known to have been involved in a piece of good reporting.

Saudi prince allegedly murdered "gay lover" before planned trip to the Maldives

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/oct/06/saudi-prince-murder-trial-london