MediaOne Moves Division Bench Against Kerala HC Order Upholding I&B Ministry Ban
The Kerala High Court on Tuesday had dismissed a petition filed by MediaOne, which challenged the ban.
Malayalam news channel MediaOne's security clearance was cancelled twice by the Ministry of Home Affairs, citing "national security" grounds. Image used for representative purposes.
(Image: Chetan Bhakuni\TheQuint)
Madhyamam Broadcasting Ltd, the parent company of Malayalam news channel Media One, on Wednesday, 9 February, filed an appeal to the Kerala High Court's Division Bench against its order on Tuesday, 8 February.
Justice N Nagaresh had held 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, LiveLaw reported.
The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting had issued the ban order based on national security concerns flagged by the MHA.
A day earlier, the high court had extended its interim order for one more day, which had put on hold the implementation of the Centre’s ban on MediaOne’s telecast.
The Centre, however, has refused to state what the concerns raised by MHA were, and also contended that a party cannot insist on observing natural justice principles in a situation involving national security, Bar and Bench reported.
Justice N Nagaresh had also declined to keep his order in abeyance for a few days to enable the channel to appeal against it, saying since national security was involved, he was not inclined to grant any such relief, news agency PTI reported.
This is not the first time that the news channel was directed to stop its broadcast. In 2020, the channel was first forced to suspend its broadcast for 48 hours for its extensive coverage of the Delhi riots.
(With inputs from PTI and LiveLaw.)
(At The Quint, we are answerable only to our audience. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member. Because the truth is worth it.)