The Petition Committee of the People's Majlis has decided not to proceed further with the petition submitted by journalists to the People's Majlis, requesting the rejection of the "Maldives Media and Broadcasting Regulatory Bill" (Media Bill) due to concerns raised in it.

Two weeks after the petition was submitted to the Majlis, a meeting of the Petition Committee was held yesterday to decide on the petition.

While the Independent Institutions Committee was reviewing the bill, yesterday's Petition Committee meeting decided to send the petition to the Independent Institutions Committee to check if they had considered the concerns raised by journalists in the petition.

This was proposed by the deputy chair of the Petition Committee, Abdul Lateef Mohamed, MP for Dhidhdhoo constituency.

After passing this and sending the petition to the Independent Institutions Committee, a meeting of the Independent Institutions Committee held at 5:00 PM yesterday made a decision regarding the petition.

At that meeting, Committee member Ibrahim Shujau, MP for Baarah constituency, said that when the committee passed the "Maldives Media and Broadcasting Regulatory Bill" last night, they had greatly considered the five points that the Petition Committee had sent to them as concerns raised by journalists in the petition.

Therefore, Shujau included in his proposal to inform the Petition Committee that the concerns highlighted in their letter have been addressed with the amendments the committee proposed to the bill.

Shujau's proposal was seconded by Mohamed Mamdooh, MP for Funadhoo constituency.

The committee passed this proposal and sent the Independent Institutions Committee's decision to the Petition Committee last night.

Consequently, a meeting of the Petition Committee was held today to decide on this matter.

Opening today's meeting, the committee chair Mohamed Ali, MP for Gadhdhoo constituency, said that the Independent Institutions Committee has given assurance that solutions have been found for the concerns raised in the five points highlighted by journalists in the petition.

As journalists had requested in the petition to reject the bill from the Majlis, he said the reality that must be accepted is that rejecting the bill is not within the committee's power.

"The committee doesn't have the power to reject a bill. The committee's responsibility is to gather information and find solutions to those issues," he said.

Therefore, he also said that the Independent Institutions Committee has responded that they considered the five points highlighted in the petition when passing the bill last night.

When he opened the floor for members' opinions on deciding this matter, Mohamed Shameez, MP for Madaveli constituency, said that returning a bill is not within the authority of any Majlis committee.

As the Independent Institutions Committee has said they have found solutions to the concerns highlighted in the petition as being in the bill, he proposed not to proceed further with the petition in the committee.

This proposal was seconded by Mohamed Abdul Rahman, MP for Hinnavaru constituency.

This decision was passed with five out of seven members present at the meeting voting in favor. One member voted against passing this decision. That was opposition MDP's Hussain Ziyad, MP for Vaikaradhoo constituency.