Kerala HC Upholds Centre’s Order to Bar MediaOne Over Security Reasons

The Centre had issued the ban order based on national security concerns flagged by the Ministry of Home Affairs.

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)

The Kerala High Court on Tuesday, 8 February, dismissed a petition filed by Malayalam channel MediaOne, challenging the Union Ministry of Information and Broadcasting's order barring its telecast after the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) did not give security clearance for renewal of its licence.

Justice N Nagaresh 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 bar 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.

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.