A bill that critics say could muzzle the media and free speech has sparked an outcry in the Maldives after the government of President Mohamed Muizzu pushed it through parliament, where it enjoys a supermajority.

A prominent union of journalists pledged on Wednesday to defy the bill, while the main opposition party called for protests and a global press freedom group urged Muizzu to veto the legislation.

“The Maldivian parliament has passed a draconian bill that seeks to muzzle dissent online and offline, both on traditional media and social media,” said Ahmed Naaif, the secretary-general of the Maldives Journalists Association (MJA), the country’s biggest union of media workers.

“We journalists will stand together in defiance against this takeover of the media by the executive branch,” he told Al Jazeera.

Muizzu’s government, however, says the legislation, known as the Maldives Media and Broadcasting Regulation Bill, only seeks to create a unified body to oversee broadcast and online media and to “safeguard the constitutional right to freedom of expression”.

Minister of Foreign Affairs Abdulla Khaleel said on X that the bill will establish “clear standards and a code of conduct” and will also “address the challenges of misinformation, disinformation and coordinated manipulation of content”.

“Personal social media accounts used in a private capacity are not regulated under this legislation,” he added.

The controversy has ratcheted up tensions in the Maldives, an island nation of 500,000 people that has struggled to consolidate its democracy since it ended 30 years of one-man rule at the ballot box in 2008.

It comes months after the president’s allies in parliament and the judicial watchdog overhauled the country’s Supreme Court, suspending a judge and firing two others on allegations of abuse of power. The former judges say the charges were manufactured to influence the outcome of several cases, including one challenging constitutional amendments that strip legislators of their seats if they switch political parties.

The government denies the accusations.

Censorship

Muizzu’s party, the People’s National Congress (PNC), and its allies control 79 of the parliament’s 93 seats.

On Tuesday, the PNC called an extraordinary session in the evening, while parliament was in recess, to push the new media bill through. Deputy Speaker Ahmed Nazim ignored protests inside and outside parliament, expelling seven legislators of the main opposition to go ahead with the vote.

The approved bill envisions the creation of a commission comprised of seven members, three of whom will be appointed by parliament and four elected by registered media groups.

The bill also grants the commission sweeping powers to fine and suspend news outlets. These include for coverage that the commission deems contrary to religious norms, national security or public order.

However, the commission “cannot unilaterally shut down outlets”, the Maldives President’s Office told Al Jazeera in a detailed note shared after the initial publication of this article. It said a judicial order will be needed before a news organisation can be closed down.

The final version of the bill that passed parliament also includes several changes from the original draft, with some provisions that had heightened fears of impending censorship removed.

The initial bill had said it would not be the parliament but the president who appointed three of the members of the commission. It had also said the commission would have the authority to search for and seize any documents it deems necessary for its investigations.

The updated bill, however, requires it to seek a judicial warrant to do so. Muizzu’s office, in its note to Al Jazeera, stressed that “personal storage devices such as hard drives, USBs, and other forms of offline storage are excluded from [the bill’s] application”.

These changes, the bill’s supporters argue, reflect the government’s responsiveness to criticism.

Still, Naaif, the MJA secretary-general, took issue with the provision that allows the parliament to dismiss all members of the commission, including the ones appointed by media houses. He said the move effectively places the media “under government control”, as the president’s party controls the legislature.

“The PNC has ignored our calls for the media to be regulated through a self-regulatory mechanism, without government interference,” he said. “Instead, it is giving these regulatory powers to a politicised commission.”

Muizzu’s office, however, insisted to Al Jazeera that any removal of the commission’s members would be limited to “cases such as incompetence or misconduct and always subject to due process”.

Naaif also claimed a provision in the bill – which states that electronic media would be subject to the same rules as traditional media – puts anyone who publishes content online at risk. The bill defines electronic media as channels that broadcast news and information using audio, video, tape and the internet.

“This bill will enable censorship of the internet to a whole new level,” he said.

The government vehemently denied the claim.

“Let’s look at how ‘media’ is interpreted. It is interpreted as registered media. This bill will not apply to people who are not part of the media,” including on social platforms, Minister of Youth Ibrahim Waheed, a former journalist, told the PSM public broadcaster on Tuesday.

“This bill will not apply to young people who are creating content for social media.”

In its note to Al Jazeera, Muizzu’s office also iterated this assertion. “Personal social media accounts used in a private capacity fall entirely outside the scope of this legislation,” it said.

‘Sad day for democracy’

The opposition Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) has declared the passage of the bill a “sad day for democracy in the Maldives” and called for the public to “join us to protest this draconian control bill”.

Former President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih said that the bill “signifies the end of press freedom in [the] Maldives” and that the “underhanded manner in which it was forced through parliament, despite protests by journalists, opposition parties, media organisations, civil society, and the public, lays bare the government’s disregard for Maldivians’ democratic rights”.

Former Foreign Minister Abdulla Shahid said that the government has “declared war on free speech”, and that “instead of fixing the crises our nation faces, they are trying to censor the voices that hold them accountable”.

The United States Embassy in the Maldives, following the bill’s passage, urged Muizzu’s government to “uphold the freedoms of expression, including dissenting and opposition voices”, while the Bar Council of the Maldives (BCM), which represents the country’s legal profession, called on the president to reconsider enacting the bill.

“The BCM believes the bill requires substantial revision and reconsideration to align with constitutional principles and international best practices,” Hussein Siraj, the council’s president, told Al Jazeera.

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) echoed the call.

“CPJ is deeply concerned that the Maldives Parliament has passed a bill that would undermine the work of independent journalists and place the media under government control,” the group said in a statement on X.

“We urge President @MMuizzu to reject the Maldives Media and Broadcasting Regulation Bill and uphold his pledge to protect media freedom.”