NEW DELHI: Within hours of the Kerala High Court on Wednesday dismissed its appeal, Mediaone, a Malayalam news channel run by prominent Madhyamam daily, swiftly filed a petition in the Supreme Court and its lawyers said it will be mentioned on Thursday before the Bench of the Chief Justice of India for an immediate hearing.The TV channel had appealed in the High Court against a single judge’s verdict, upholding the Union Information and Broadcasting Ministry revoking its broadcasting licence by refusing to renew its uplinking and downlinking permission for telecasting programmes through Mediaone TV as also Media One Life and Media one Global. The Government’s stand is that the company running these channels has some linkages with certain undesirable forces and hence a security threat.
A Bench of Chief Justice S Manikumar and Justice Shaji P Chali struck down the appeals filed by the Madhyamam Broadcasting Limited, Kozhikode, which owns the channel, its editor and the Kerala Union of Working Journalsts (KUWJ).
Based on the documents received in the sealed covers, the Bench concluded that the channel posed serious security threats. It found “certain serious adverse reports by the Intelligence Bureau (IB) against Madhyamam Broadcasting Limited and its managing director. It said: “….the nature, impact, gravity and depth of the issue is not discernible from the files, but, at the same time, there are clear and significant indications impacting the public order and security of the State.”
The judgment said: “Since it is a confidential and sensitive file maintained by the Ministry of Home Affairs, we are not expressing anything further in the interest of national security, public order and other aspects concerning the administration of the nation.”
It said: When there were when there were “reasons adverse to the interests of the nation,” the government was vested with powers to revoke the licence. The judgment noted that the I&B Ministry had issued notice to the company and its reply were forwarded to the Ministry of Home Affairs, which was declined and therefore, “it cannot be said that the renewal of the permission is an absolute right unmindful of other grievous situations, once the registration and permission was granted.”
