Critical Views Can’t Be Termed As Anti-Establishment: SC Lifts Centre’s Ban On MediaOne

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday quashed the telecast ban on Malayalam news channel MediaOne, saying critical views of the channel against the government policies cannot be termed as “anti-establishment”.
The top court set aside the Kerala High Court's ruling which upheld the order of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting to revoke the license of the news channel. The apex court said that an independent press is important for the functioning of society and robust democracy. Pulling up the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) for refusing to grant security clearance to the Malayalam news channel, the SC said that the national security claim can't be made in “thin air”. “National security claims cannot be made out of thin air, there must be material facts backing it,” the SC said. The apex court said that the Ministry of Information Broadcasting will proceed to issue a renewal license to the channel within four weeks.
Why Centre imposed ban on MediaOne?
On January 31, 2022, the Centre barred the telecast of the Malayalam channel and revoked its licence on grounds of national security. The government's directive was challenged by the channel in the Kerala High Court which upheld the telecast ban order. Last year in June, the Centre told the Supreme Court that the denial of security clearance to MediaOne is based on intelligence inputs, which are “sensitive” and “secret in nature”. It said that as a matter of policy and in the interest of security of the State and its establishments, the MHA does not disclose the reasons for denial.