Hussain Amr, a senior member of The Democrats, who recently alleged journalists of taking bribes from the President's Office, apologized over his remarks on Tuesday.
Amr, who served as the Managing Director of State Trading Organization (STO), made the remarks on Sunday during a press conference.
He shared a news article on social media on Tuesday and said he made the remarks to encourage free journalism.
"I noticed that some people were unhappy with the way I conducted my speech. I apologize for the way I conducted my speech," Amr stated.
Amr said free journalism requires financial freedom and the state should allocate money to newspapers in the same way as it does to political parties.
“I would also like to assure you that this will be included in the policy manifesto [of The Democrats]," he said.
The Maldives Journalists Association (MJA) and Maldives Media Council (MMC) earlier condemned "attempts to discredit journalists with unfounded allegations."
