Day after Kerala HC upheld ban on MediaOne, order challenged in division bench
Madhyamam Boradcasting Limited, the Malayalam news channel's parent company, filed appeal against Tuesday's order by a single judge bench.
A day after a single judge bench of the Kerala high court upheld the Information and Broadcasting (I&B) ministry's ban on Malayalam news channel MediaOne, the order was on Wednesday challenged in the division bench of the high court by Madhyamam Broadcasting Limited, the channel's parent company, news agency ANI reported.
On Tuesday, Justice N Nagaresh of the Kerala high court dismissed writ petition filed by Madhyamam Broadcasting Limited to overturn the ban ordered by the I&B ministry and, in the process, grant security clearance to MediaOne.
“This court is not inclined to interfere with the denial of renewal of petitioner’s license. The writ petition is accordingly dismissed,” the bench observed.
On January 31, the I&B ministry stopped MediaOne's transmission citing ‘security’ reasons. Also, this is for the second time that the channel has faced action; in March 2020, it was banned for 48 hours, along with another Malayalam news channel, Asianet, for its coverage of the riots in northeast Delhi the previous month.
The ban was due to the channels' coverage of the riots in a manner that ‘highlighted the attack on places of worship and sided towards a particular community,’ the government order had read.
