Malayalam TV news channel MediaOne has moved the Supreme Court on Wednesday after a division bench of the Kerala High Court upheld the ban imposed on it by the Union Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.
The Centre banned the channel citing intelligence inputs they had received. Several political leaders from the ruling Left Democratic Front as well as the opposition United Democratic Front have condemned the move by the Central government to target media organisations. However, the Media One has decided to approach the Supreme Court against the High Court order.
Advocate on Record Pallavi Pratap will be representing the petitioners in the matter.
On January 31, a few hours after the Ministry suspended the channel’s telecast citing security concerns, MediaOne had approached the Single Judge bench of the Kerala High Court. The channel owned by the Jamaat-e-Islami went off the air on the same day.
Although the Single Judge bench granted the channel interim relief allowing it to telecast till the case was decided, Justice N. Nagaresh held that after perusing the files from the Union Ministry of Home Affairs it found intelligence inputs that justify denial of security clearance to the channel. The Ministry had produced the files before the Court in a sealed cover.
MediaOne had approached to the Division Bench and later the bench agreed with the single Judge and upheld the ban imposed by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting citing that national security was of utmost importance.