New Delhi: The Kerala high court on Monday (January 31) deferred the order issued to Malayalam news channel MediaOne TV by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting revoking its license to broadcast till the next hearing date, LiveLaw reported.
The news channel went off the air on Monday, reportedly because its license was revoked by the Union government, citing “security concerns, The News Minute reported.
“Dear audience, the telecast of MediaOne channel has once again been disallowed by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Government of India, citing security reasons. The Government has not been forthcoming with the details,” channel editor Pramod Raman said in a statement. “MediaOne is taking urgent legal steps for the restoration of the channel, and hope to get back to the viewers as soon as we can. For the time being, we are suspending our telecast, confident that justice will prevail.”
The notice sent to the channel reportedly did not specify if this move is temporary or permanent.
According to LiveLaw, the channel had filed a writ petition before the Kerala high court, seeking to set aside the Union government’s order. In its plea, the channel has contended that it has not involved itself in any sort of anti-national activity, and therefore requested before the court that the order must be withdrawn.
MediaOne is a popular channel in Kerala. According to The News Minute, it is owned by the Madhyamam Broadcasting Limited, many of the investors of which are members of the Kerala chapter of Jamaat-e-Islami.
This is not the first time the channel has been taken off the air. In March 2020, Media One along with another Malayalam channel Asianet had been taken off the air for 48 hours for their coverage of the communal violence in North-East Delhi. However, both channels had then come back on air a few hours after the ban.
This story was published on January 31 at 3:40 pm and has been republished at 5:20 pm with an update on the Kerala high court temporarily deferring the Union government’s ban on the news channel.