Kerala High Court Upholds Ban on Malayalam TV Channel MediaOne

A division bench dismissed the news channel's appeal against the Union government's decision to stop its telecast.

A division bench of the Kerala High Court on Wednesday, 2 March, upheld a single-judge order on the ban on MediaOne.

(Image: Chetan Bhakuni\TheQuint)

A division bench of the Kerala High Court on Wednesday, 2 March, upheld a single-judge order on the ban on Malayalam TV channel MediaOne.

A bench comprising Chief Justice S Manikumar and Justice Chaly dismissed the news channel's appeal against the Union government's decision to stop its telecast by not renewing its licence over "security reasons."

"We have perused the confidential files and we are convinced that there is a threat to national security," the division bench of the Kerala High Court said on Wednesday, according to LiveLaw.

Madhyamam Broadcasting Ltd, which operates MediaOne, had filed an appeal before the division bench after a single-judge bench of the high court had upheld the Union government's ban.

In its appeal, the channel said that it had been victimised for fair and genuine news reporting, arguing that the Centre's justification of the takedown – of threat to national security – was only a "ruse" and "without any basis," as per The News Minute.

Previously

The single-judge bench of the high court on 8 February had dismissed a petition filed by Malayalam channel MediaOne, challenging the Union Ministry of Information and Broadcasting's order barring its telecast.

Justice N Nagaresh had held that after perusing the files from the Union Ministry of Home Affairs, it had been found that there were intelligence inputs that justified the denial of security clearance to the channel.

The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting had issued the ban order on 31 January, based on national security concerns flagged by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), which had cancelled the "security clearance" of the channel.

In 2020, the channel, owned by Jamaat-e-Islami, was first forced to suspend its broadcast for 48 hours for its coverage of the Delhi riots.