Two months after last holding a press conference open to all media outlets, President Mohamed Muizzu said today that he interacts with journalists in some form every week.

The President made these remarks while responding to a question from Dhauru at a press conference held today after ratifying seven bills, including the bill passed by Parliament that makes it mandatory to exchange 40% of resorts’ dollar revenue.

Questions at the press conference were opened only in relation to the bills. However, when Dhauru repeatedly raised two questions that had been posed at the press conference held four months ago in April, instead of answering them, the President said questions could only be asked within today’s topic. Those two questions concerned the 13 million rufiyaa taxi app deal that MTCC made with a private party without any bidding process, and the alleged matter of MACL hiring 80 employees on high salaries “to work from home.”

“I meet with journalists every week. A press conference may not be held in this hall. But not a single week will go by without me interacting with some media outlet,” the President said.

The President had announced that he would meet with journalists every Monday during the Presidential Address delivered at this year’s opening session of Parliament. However, the last press conference open to all media outlets was held on June 29.

When the President referred to interacting with the media in some form, he was pointing to podcasts such as ‘Nation Chat’ and ‘Pulse’ produced by the President’s Office. However, these podcasts only give opportunities to specific media outlets chosen by the President’s Office, on a specific topic set for the week.