Over the last decade, growing business opportunities, successful government and private education initiatives, and the popularity of Western and Indian fashion, music and films, have helped spread knowledge of English and Hindi among Maldivians throughout many islands of the atolls. In the last few years a wide range of information accessibility, delivered via popular English and Hindi cable and satellite television channels and the Internet, has raised the level of awareness of the outside world, but news specifically from Maldives is reported only through media controlled by the President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, his ministers and trusted associates. The state-owned radio and television stations are directed by the Minister for Information and Culture, Ibrahim Manik, brother-in-law of first lady, Nasreena Ibrahim, while the three daily newspapers are controlled by other close associates of the President. Mohamed Zahir Hussein, Minister for Youth and Sports, owns the Haveeru daily paper. He has been an intimate friend of Gayyoom since their student days at Al Azhar University in Cairo during the 1950s. Miadhu newspaper is co-edited by Gayyoom and owned by Minister for Health, Ahmed Abdullah. Abbas Ibrahim, brother of Nasreena Ibrahim and head of the National Council for Linguistic and Historical Research, owns Aafathis, the third daily paper.
The local media carries no information about the inner workings of the Malé government, or anything that might embarrass the President and his administration. There is no analysis of government policy or official decisions. Information within Maldives is suppressed by a carefully designed presidential system for censorship and suppression of criticism. This system is based on similar authoritarian practices developed in twentieth century Syria, Iraq, Egypt and Libya. It has allowed not only the Maldives National Security Service (NSS), but also cliques within the administration including the President, to act without legal and ethical restrictions. Any suggestion of reform is treated as a personal threat to these groups. Maldives is a tightly managed society and NSS actions of violence and intimidation without any regard for the legal rights of the people, requires organised connivance by a state acting well beyond the boundaries of traditionally accepted Maldivian norms.
The criminal procedure law of December 2002 gave the NSS complete control over the investigation process so much so that the arrested person's defence lawyer may now face criminal charges at the discretion of investigating officers. The real high court in the Maldives is the President's Office, and judges of politically sensitive cases receive their verdicts directly from there. In the past, Malé's judges often intervened to prevent abuse of court processes by government, but after the new 1998 Constitution placed the judiciary under direct presidential control, judges lost any semblance of independence.
As far as the Malé ruling elite is concerned, control, not development, is the first priority in their relationship with the rest of the country. Traditionally, the elite's attitude towards the atolls, and people outside their families' circles of power, was one of feudal disdain and indifference, but limited accessibility to distant atolls from the capital meant that large areas of the country were semi-autonomous. When they came into contact with their rulers in Malé, common islanders were required to perform ritual subservience to their rulers. In modern Maldives, these rituals remain important. They are performed in government-sponsored clubs and organisations, at public school meetings and every official function. Non-attendance at these functions is interpreted as disloyalty to the state and a personal criticism of the attending officials and guests.