Hence, the security forces shot several unarmed prisoners. Three were killed while seventeen were injured. When this news broke in the capital city, many people gathered around the hospital and the cemetery. The public got infuriated and agitated, resulting in a civil unrest in the Maldives. Several police stations were set ablaze, government offices were attacked and vehicles were set on fire. On 13 August 2004, locally known as Black Friday[1], people gathered at the Republican square demanding the resignation of Gayoom, release of pro-reformists and the writers of Sandhaanu. When the news of the large demonstration reached the Maafushi jail, the prisoners broke the jail and left the island in two sail boats to reach the capital city. However, before they reached, the coast guard sunk one boat and tear gassed the other. Telecommunication Company was forced to shut down internet service to prevent the news and pictures of the demonstrations from being exposed to the international media, and yet some news and pictures were leaked to international communities. The state of emergency was lifted only due to international pressure.
After the death of Evan Naseem, Ahmed Shafeeq Ibrahim Moosa[2] known as Sappe’ gave an interview to BBC regarding the unrest following the death of the inmate. This interview was given on 15 October 2003. After the interview, he left to United Kingdom due to fear of being arrested. The interview was only aired on 17 October 2003. He then started operating his own website known as DhivehiObserver, which covered political events that happened in the Maldives, corruption in the government and torture in the jails. This website was banned by the government and many attempts were made to shut down the website, nonetheless, it was always made available to the readers through different proxy names.
Despite not having laws to regulate internet, digital media or social content, censorship of web-based content is major problem. In November 2011, a blog of a journalist named Ismail Khilath Rasheed was shut down by Communications Authority of the Maldives (CAM) due to the fact that he promoted religious tolerance, which was much condemned by Reporters Without Borders. Sadly, on 5 June 2012, Ismail Khilath Rasheed was stabbed in the neck near his house in Malé but rather fortunately, survived the attempted murder.