On Wednesday, the Kerala High Court upheld the ban imposed on the Malayalam TV channel MediaOne TV.
According to the reports, the division bench of Kerala High Court comprising Chief Justice S Manikumar and Justice Shaji P Chali upheld the single-judge order on the ban on Malayalam news channel MediaOne TV. The Kerala High Court refused to lift the ban on the channel imposed by the Union government, citing “security reasons”.
Madhyamam Broadcasting Limited, owned by the radical Islamist organisation Jamaat-e-Islami, which runs MediaOne TV, had approached the High Court after a single bench refused to lift the ban on the channel.
On February 8, a single-judge bench of Justice N Nagaresh had upheld the ban imposed by the Union Information and Broadcasting (I&B) Ministry. The central government had refused to renew the transmission licence of the channel after the Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) refused to give security clearance to the controversial channel, citing “security reasons”.
The single-judge bench had dismissed the petition after observing that material and intelligence reports supported the ban on the channel. The court observed that there were sufficient grounds for denying permission to renew the channel’s licence.
Passing the orders, Justice AN Nagaresh said he had gone through the files. “I find that the ministry has called for reports from various intelligence agencies. Based on those inputs, it was found that security clearance should not be renewed. There are inputs that justify the decision. Therefore, I am dismissing the petition,” said the judge.
MediaOne TV’s 10-year permission was to expire on September 29, 2021, and the company had applied for its renewal for another ten years in May last year. On December 29, 2021, the MHA denied security clearance citing “security reasons”. On January 31, the ministry had issued the order barring the channel’s transmission. Hours later, the channel had moved the High Court.
In 2020, the controversial channel with links to radical Islamic organisations faced a 48-hour ban in connection with its reporting of the Anti-Hindu Delhi riots that year.
