The Kerala High Court on Tuesday upheld the decision of the ministry of information and broadcasting to revoke the broadcast licence of Malayalam news channel MediaOne.
MediaOne was briefly taken off the air on January 31 after its licence was revoked. However, the channel was soon allowed to resume operations after the Kerala High Court stayed the Centre's order following an appeal from the media outlet. The Centre had cited security concerns as being the reason for the order.
On Tuesday, Justice N. Nagaresh cited intelligence inputs related to security matters as being the reasons for the Centre's order. “I have gone through the files. I find that the ministry has called for report from various intelligence agencies. Based on those inputs, it was found that security clearance should not be renewed. There are inputs which justify the decision. Therefore I am dismissing the petition,” Nagaresh was quoted as saying by Bar and Bench.
MediaOne has the backing of Muslim outfit Jamaat-e-Islami. Last month's order had been panned by various opposition groups such as the Congress and Left parties.
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In March 2020, the Centre had briefly banned MediaOne and Asianet News, another Malayalam TV channel, for their coverage of the Delhi riots. At the time, MediaOne was accused of being critical towards Delhi Police and the RSS.
