‘Centre must not abuse its powers’: Journalists, MPs issue statement on MediaOne licence suspension

After the central government revoked the licence of Malayalam news channel Media One, journalists, editors, lawyers, activists and parliamentarians issued a statement calling it a “clampdown on broader press freedom in India”.

“The decision of the single-judge bench of the Kerala High Court was based on a ‘sealed cover’ envelope provided by the MHA, the contents of which were not shared with MediaOne News,” the statement said. “This goes against the basic principles of natural justice...We also feel that the Hon’ble Court failed in its bounden duty as a constitutional court by not providing the reasons behind its judgement, and instead reiterating the line of the MHA regarding ‘intelligence inputs’ and ‘national security’ concerns.”

The statement was released at a press conference held in Delhi on Monday. It was signed by political leaders including Congress' Digvijay Singh, DMK's Kanimozhi, TMC's Mahua Moitra, Shiv Sena's Priyanka Chaturvedi, RJD's Manoj Kumar Jha, CPM's Elamaram Kareem, CPI's Binoy Viswam, RSP's NK Premachandran, AIUDF's Badruddin Ajmal, and IUML's ET Mohd Basheer.

Among journalists, it was signed by the Hindu’s N Ram, Telegraph editor R Rajagopal, Caravan executive editor Vinod K Jose, MediaOne editor Pramod Raman, the News Minute reported.

The channel had gone off air on January 31 after its transmission was blocked by the ministry of information and broadcasting. The ministry of home affairs had cited “national security” concerns as reasons for the revocation of MediaOne’s uplinking and downlinking licence. The channel’s appeal for renewal of licence was rejected by the I&B ministry.

On February 8, the Kerala High Court upheld the ministry’s decision. Two intervening petitions by some employees of the channel and the Kerala Union of Working Journalists have been filed in the matter.

Monday’s statement noted that MediaOne’s transmission had also been suspended in 2020 because of its coverage of the violence during the Delhi riots that took place early that year. “...its refusal to toe the government line had incurred this suspension from the central government,” the statement said.

Pointing out that freedom of the press was “essential to the health of any democracy”, the statement said the centre “must not be allowed to abuse its powers to curb critical voices and television news channels that dare to question the official narrative”.