The Kerala High Court on Tuesday upheld the order passed by the Union Ministry of Information and Broadcasting to revoke the license given to prominent Malayalam news channel MediaOne for broadcast.
Justice N. Nagaresh stated that after perusing the files from the Union Ministry of Home Affairs, it has been found that there are intelligence inputs that justify the denial of security clearance to the channel.
“There are inputs justifying the denial of security clearance. Therefore I am dismissing the writ petition”, Justice Nagaresh said, according to LiveLaw.
“Journalism is injurious to health,” the channel’s managing editor wrote on Facebook, following the verdict.
Sources close to the channel management shared that they will approach the Supreme Court for relief immediately.
Mediaone TV, the only Muslim owned private satellite channel in India, was taken off-air on 31 January by the Central ministry, citing “security concerns”.
The reasons are not made public. The central government informed the Court that reasons could not be revealed to the public.
The same day, Kerala High Court passed an interim order to stay the ban, which allowed the channel to be on air.
Last week, 10 Lok Sabha MPs from Kerala met Union I&B Minister Anurag Thakur and appealed to revoke the order. The ban was raised by lawmakers in both the Houses of Parliament.
On Sunday, Congress leader in Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury wrote to Thakur saying “curbing the freedom of the press in the garb of vague charges like security reasons would degenerate our State into a totalitarian regime”, and asked him to immediately lift the licence ban.
