Maldives Media Council (MMC) has called on the authorities to investigate the death threat made against journalists from the online news outlet ‘Vaguthu’.

Vaguthu’ published an article this week stating their journalists had been threatened on social media.

According to ‘Vaguthu’, someone had posted on Facebook accusing ‘Vaguthu’ journalists of “spying on Muslims in Addu”.

A second Facebook user commented on the post that “the verdict for people who spy on Muslims is death”.

In a statement condemning the threat, MMC said it found threats on social media targeting individual journalists and news outlets was of great concern to the council.

MMC also said it does not take such threats lightly, given the history of life-threatening attacks against journalists following such threats.

“We condemn the death threat against ‘Vaguthu’ journalists, and call on relevant authorities to investigate this and provide justice to the journalists as soon as possible,” said the MMC.

‘Vaguthu’ has reported the death threat to the police.