Kerala HC dismisses Media One appeal against order upholding Centre's ban on its telecast

The Kerala High Court on Wednesday dismissed Malayalam news channel MediaOne's appeal against a single judge order upholding the Centre's decision to stop its telecast by not renewing its licence.

A bench of Chief Justice S Manikumar and Justice Shaji P Chaly also rejected the appeals by some of the channel's employees, including its Editor, as well as the Kerala Union of Working Journalists (KUWJ) against the single judge's order of February 8.

The Centre had banned telecast of the channel on January 31. The single judge had said the denial of security clearance to MediaOne by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) was "justified" based on the inputs received from intelligence agencies.

The single judge had also said that according to the downlinking guidelines, even at the time of considering renewal of permission, security clearance was mandatory. This was not the first time the channel has faced such a bar on its operation.

MediaOne, along with another Malayalam News channel, Asianet, was briefly suspended for 48 hours over their coverage of communal violence in Delhi in 2020, with the official orders saying they covered the violence in a manner that "highlighted the attack on places of worship and siding towards a particular community". (PTI)