The Kerala High Court on Monday stayed an order of the central government banning the broadcast of Malayalam news channel MediaOne. The high court sought an explanation from the Centre hours after the Information and Broadcasting (I&B) Ministry issued the order.

 

The court has stayed the implementation of the order for two days on a plea filed by the channel.

 

The channel, in a statement, said the prohibition was ordered citing security reasons, but the I&B ministry was not ready to give the details of the grounds that led to the decision.

 

Speaker of the Kerala Assembly, M B Rajesh, said the central government action against the channel should be viewed as an invasion over the freedom of opinion.

 

Leader of the Opposition in Kerala Assembly, V D Satheesan, termed the central government's action anti-democratic. "The central government is implementing the Sangh Parivar's policy of showing intolerance towards news which they don't like. It's gross violation of the freedom of the media," he said in a social media post.

 

In March 2020, the I&B ministry had banned MediaOne along with Asianet News for 48 hours over their coverage of the Delhi riots, stating that their reports sided “towards a particular community” among other violations of the Cable TV Act. The ban on both the channels were lifted before the suspension period ended.