On Thursday (November 3) Supreme Court ruled that it would be too far-fetched to argue that the government cannot refuse to renew a broadcast license based on security clearance. The court said this while reserving its order on the petition filed by Malayalam news channel MediaOne challenging the Kerala High Court order upholding the ban imposed on it. Earlier this year, The ministry of information and broadcasting (I&B) had shut down the channel due to security concerns after the regional television channel was found to be supporting the radical Islamist organisation Jamaat-e-Islami.
A bench comprising justices DY Chandrachud and Hima Kohli, which reserved its verdict on the petitions of MediaOne, its editors, and others, stated that there cannot be a blanket order stating that the government cannot look into security clearance before the renewal of a news channel’s broadcast licences.
“Security clearances may have several aspects. We cannot issue a generic order to that effect. We cannot argue that the government should not consider security clearances when renewing licenses. However, we can examine the peculiar circumstances of this case,” the bench stated.
The Supreme Court was hearing the news channel’s appeal against a Kerala High Court order that upheld the Centre’s decision to prohibit its telecast due to its impact on national security. The apex court perused a confidential document of the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) during the hearing, this document was also perused by the Kerala High Court.
The Supreme Court also inquired about the shareholding pattern of MediaOne and how is the revenue share divided. To this, advocate Huzefa Ahmadi appearing for the editor of MediaOne informed that the company has 67,000 shareholders.
During the hearing, Ahmadi stated that denial of security clearance should not be treated as an isolated incident because it can have far-reaching consequences.
Notably, on February 8 this year, a single-judge bench of the Kerala High Court led by Justice N Nagaresh upheld the ban imposed by the Union Information and Broadcasting (I&B) Ministry on the Malayalam TV channel MediaOne TV. Justice AN Nagaresh said that the ministry had taken the decision based on reports from various intelligence agencies. “There are inputs that justify the decision. Therefore, I am dismissing the petition,” the single-judge bench had said. The channel had approached the court after the central government refused to renew the channel’s transmission license after the Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) refused to grant security clearance for security reasons on the basis of inputs received from various security agencies.
Madhyamam Broadcasting Limited, which runs MediaOne TV and is owned by the radical Islamist organization Jamaat-e-Islami, had then approached the High Court after the single bench refused to lift the channel’s ban. But a Kerala High Court division bench of Chief Justice S Manikumar and Justice Shaji P Chali upheld the single-judge order on the ban, refusing to lift the ban imposed by the Union government for “security reasons.” The court had added that it will not comment further on confidential material in the interest of national security.
MediaOne TV’s 10-year license was set to expire on September 29, 2021, and the company applied for a 10-year extension in May of last year. However, On January 31, the I&B Ministry issued an order barring the channel’s transmission.
On March 15, The Supreme Court stayed the Central Government’s ban on the Malayalam news channel ‘MediaOne’. The Supreme Court overturned the Kerala High Court decision that upheld the Union Ministry of Information and Broadcasting’s decision not to renew the channel’s licence, ruling that the channel can resume operations in the same manner as before the security clearance was revoked.
In 2020, the controversial channel with ties to radical Islamic organizations like Jamaat-e-Islami was banned for 48 hours for its coverage of the Anti-Hindu Delhi riots that year.
It is worth noting that in July 2021, a Kerala-based journalist revealed how the Islamist organization Jamaat-e-Islami had received funds from Saudi Arabian universities in order to ‘Islamize’ India. Following the terror attack in Pulwama, the Government of India banned the outfit on February 28, 2019, on suspicion of funding the terror organization Hizbul Mujahideen.