CNM Shareholder Ismail Rasheed has said that CNM was suddenly stopped last night due to undue influence exerted on the paper. Ismail Rasheed owned 49 percent of CNM.
A statement released by Ismail Rasheed said that the paper had to be halted due to influence from the Government. He said the paper had been under pressure for a while now, mostly directed towards the other shareholder Mohamed Ali Janah. Janah owned 51 percent of the paper.
Janah had resigned as Chair of the paper and had decided to sell off his share in the paper.
"However, Janah had held off selling the share, which had resulted in the situation where the pressure on the paper, journalists and CNM team had increased,"
Janah had denied that there was any political pressure on the paper. Janah said the paper was stopped basically on business sense. Responding to this Ismail said the claims were false and that Janah was forced to make that statement.
"We were forced to accept this on two situation; we had to consider Janah's status as he was the founder of the paper with heavy investment into it and to protect the archive of the paper, spanning five years," Ismail said.
