Lawyers and free speech activists have slammed the revocation of license of a Kerala-based news chan-nel, ‘MediaOne’ for being critical of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its ideological fountain-head, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) in India.
Expressing disappointment with the court order upholding the ban on the channel owned by Kerala chapter of Jamaat-e-Islami India, lawyers and civil rights activists criticised the move calling it an as-sault on freedom of press.
On January 5, the Indian Ministry of Informa-tion & Broadcasting revoked the channel’s license, both uplink and downlink, citing unspecified ‘na-tional security’ concerns raised by the Indian Minis-try of Home Affairs. The channel is off air since then.
Speaking at a press conference in New Delhi via video link, N Ram, the editor of The Hindu, said the ban under the garb of so-called national security is “totally unacceptable and unconstitutional”.
He said that even if the media outlets commit some error, there should be self-regulatory mecha-nism and bodies to address such issues instead of downright banning the channel.
The channel petitioned before the Kerala High Court against the ban, but after an interim relief for couple of days, the court upheld the government’s position after it filed a response in a sealed cover. The channel said it was not shown the contents of the response.
Calling the national security argument arbitrary, Ram questioned the courts’ free pass when it comes to the fundamental rights including the right to free-dom of expression.
Many attribute the New Delhi’s decision to re-voke the license to the fact that the channel is owned by Jamaat-e-Islami and its editorial policy has been critical of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its ideological fountain-head, RSS.—INP
