Attorney General Ahmed Usham told the Parliament on Wednesday that his office is working on submitting an anti-defamation bill during the ongoing third session of the legislative assembly.
The Maldives introduced the General Regulations Act in 2008, as a parent legislation to provide a legal basis for over 80 regulations without a statutory basis when the new Constitution was adopted earlier that year.
While the Act was intended to be temporary, its validity has been extended multiple times as some of the regulations in it, including one on defamation, continue to lack of specific legislations.
Usham, during a parliamentary sitting on Wednesday morning, said that the administration is not in favor of continuing to extend the General Regulations Act, which, with its extension, is set to expire in April next year.
He said that the government therefore needs to formulate specific legislations, including one on defamation.
Attorney General Ahmed Usham responds to questions at the Parliament on October 15, 2025. (Photo/People's Majlis)
“Before this, it is very important that the Parliament passes a defamation law to replace the existing defamation regulation. We are therefore working on submitting a defamation bill to the Parliament to replace the existing defamation regulation,” he said.
Usham said that a defamation bill is on the list of legislatures the AGO plans to submit to the Parliament during the current parliamentary session.
He said that in the event that the AGO is unable to submit the bill during the current session, it will be submitted during the first session of next year, by the latest.
The Parliament had passed an Anti-Defamation and Freedom of Speech Act back in 2016, during former President Abdulla Yameen Abdul Gayoom’s administration. The legislature was seen as a blow to the constitutional right to freedom of speech, and was applied to impose hefty fines on private TV channels seen as anti-government. The Act was repealed in 2018, during former President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih’s administration, and the “regulation on compensation for defamation” was added back to the General Regulations Act.