MediaOne, staff appeal in HC against order upholding Centre's closure of the channel

Three separate appeals have been filed at the Kerala High court by the company that operates MediaOne, some of its staff and a journalist’s union on Wednesday (February 9)  against the single judge’s order upholding the Centre’s move to bar the Malayalam news channel from being aired.

The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) had refused security clearance for renewal of the licence of the MediaOne channel run by Madhyamam Broadcasting Limited.

The bench of Chief Justice S Manikumar and Justice Shaji P Chaly will hear the matter on Thursday. Senior advocate Jaju Babu, who is representing Pramod Raman, the channel’s editor, some of its employees and the Kerala Union of Working Journalists (KUWJ), confirmed the appeals had been filed and that the issue would be heard on Thursday by the bench.

The appeals have argued that the Centre issued the order pulling the channel MediaOne “abruptly” off air without hearing the company or its staff and this has led to more than 320 journalists and non-journalists losing their jobs.

They also claimed that the February 8 order by the single judge of the high court upholding the Centre’s decision was “illegal and unsustainable”. The single judge in his order had ruled that the denial of security clearance to MediaOne by the MHA was “justified”.

Also read: Lawyers, journalists dismayed by Kerala HC’s verdict in Media One case

“Having gone through the files produced by the MHA, I find that the ministry has called for reports from various intelligence agencies and based on the inputs received from the intelligence agencies, a committee of officers recommended that security clearance should not be renewed.”

“MHA also considered the entire facts and accepted the recommendation of the committee of officers. Going through the files, I find that there are inputs which justify the decision of the MHA,” the judge had said.

The court, in its 42-page judgement, had also said that according to the downlinking guidelines, security clearance was mandatory even at the time of considering renewal of permission. “The contention of the petitioners that the security clearance is a one time affair and is not required at the time of renewal of licence, therefore, cannot be accepted,” it had said.

The company employees and KUWJ, in their respective appeals, alleged that the single judge had “erred” in stating that the security clearance was mandatory for even renewal of the permissions. They have appealed that the single judge’s February 8 decision be set aside.

This is not the first time the channel has being barred from operating. MediaOne, along with another Malayalam News channel, Asianet, was briefly suspended for 48 hours over their coverage of communal violence in Delhi in 2020, with the official orders stating they covered the violence in a manner that “highlighted the attack on places of worship and siding towards a particular community”.