Former President Mohamed Nasheed has taken a jab at former President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom while congratulating him on receiving an award for journalism.
Gayoom received the Diamond Jubilee Pen of Honour at Tuesday night’s event to mark 75 years of journalism in the Maldives.
In a tweet on Wednesday, Nasheed congratulated Gayoom on receiving the award, right after noting how he had been charged and imprisoned over 14 times, "mostly for writing dissenting journalism".
I have been charged and imprisoned over 14 times, mostly for writing dissenting journalism. Congratulations to President Gayoom for receiving the honour marking the Diamond Jubilee of Maldives Journalism.
Nasheed had been imprisoned and tortured numerous times while working as a political journalist during Gayoom’s 30-year rule.
During that time, Nasheed and the new President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih ran a newspaper called Sangu which reported on the abuses of Gayoom’s dictatorship.
Tuesday’s event has also been criticized for awarding Mohamed Shaheeb, the head of the broadcasting commission, which had obstructed the free media in the Maldives by imposing massive fines during former President Abdulla Yameen’s tenure.
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