Maldives President sets record with 15-hour press conference

Maldives President Mohamed Muizzu held a marathon press conference lasting nearly 15 hours, setting a new world record, his office announced on Sunday. This surpassed the previous record held by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Muizzu, 46, began the press conference at 10:00 am (0500 GMT) on Saturday and continued until 12:54 am on Sunday, taking only brief pauses for prayers. His office confirmed that the conference, which lasted for 14 hours and 54 minutes, set a new world record for a presidential press conference, during which Muizzu answered journalists' questions without interruption.

In October 2019, Ukraine's National Records Agency declared that Zelensky's 14-hour press conference had broken a prior record of over seven hours held by Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko.

Muizzu’s extended press conference was also scheduled to coincide with World Press Freedom Day on Saturday. The statement highlighted that Muizzu acknowledged the vital role of the press in society and emphasized the importance of factual, balanced, and impartial reporting.

During the session, Muizzu addressed not only questions from journalists but also queries submitted by the public. The statement added that Muizzu, who took office in 2023, was celebrating the Maldives' improvement in the 2025 World Press Freedom Index by Reporters Without Borders (RSF), where the country rose two places to 104th out of 180 nations.

Throughout the session, Muizzu answered a broad range of questions, and around two dozen reporters attended the event, with food provided.

This record follows a previous milestone set by Muizzu’s predecessor, Mohamed Nasheed, who in 2009 held the first-ever underwater cabinet meeting to draw attention to the threat of rising sea levels that could submerge the Maldives. Nasheed and his ministers conducted the meeting while scuba diving in the Indian Ocean, with the event being nationally televised.

The Maldives, consisting of 1,192 small coral islands scattered across the equator, is at the forefront of the battle against global warming, with rising sea levels posing a direct threat to the nation’s existence.