KOCHI: The high court will pronounce its judgment on the Union government's decision to revoke the licence of Malayalam news channel MediaOne TV on Tuesday morning. The court extended the stay on the revocation of the licence until tomorrow.
After hearing the counsels representing the channel operator Madhyamam Broadcasting Ltd, the Union government, and Kerala Union of Working Journalists (KUWJ), Justice N Nagaresh said the judgment will be pronounced in open court during the morning session.
Files related to the Union government's decision on revoking the licence have been produced before the court.
During the hearing, assistant solicitor general (ASG) Manu S submitted that this is not the only case where the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) has denied renewal of licence for a channel. The court asked whether any cancellations were done recently. Not very recently, the ASG replied. There have been several instances where the Ministry of Home Affairs would write to the MIB that there are security concerns and security clearance cannot be continued. In such cases, notices are issued to the channels and licences are revoked, the court was told.
Senior counsel S Sreekumar argued that the earlier denial of security clearance mentioned in MIB's order relates to another channel of the company. ASG argued that the security clearance relates to the company and it doesn't matter whether clearance was in the case of one channel or the other of the same company.
