Kerala HC dismisses MediaOne appeal against order upholding Centre's ban on its telecast
Kochi(PTI): The Kerala High Court on Wednesday dismissed Malayalam news channel MediaOne's appeal against a single judge order upholding the Centre's decision to stop its telecast by not renewing its licence.
A bench of Chief Justice S Manikumar and Justice Shaji P Chaly also rejected the appeals by some of the channel's employees, including its Editor, as well as the Kerala Union of Working Journalists (KUWJ) against the single judge's order of February 8.
The Centre had banned telecast of the channel on January 31.
The single judge had said the denial of security clearance to MediaOne by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) was "justified" based on the inputs received from intelligence agencies.
The single judge had also said that according to the downlinking guidelines, even at the time of considering renewal of permission, security clearance was mandatory.
This was not the first time the channel has faced such a bar on its operation.
MediaOne, along with another Malayalam News channel, Asianet, was briefly suspended for 48 hours over their coverage of communal violence in Delhi in 2020, with the official orders saying they covered the violence in a manner that "highlighted the attack on places of worship and siding towards a particular community".
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Congress using hijab issue to pacify minority anger, alleges Karnataka LoP R Ashoka
Bengaluru: Leader of Opposition in the Assembly R. Ashoka has accused the Congress government of using the hijab issue to placate what he described as discontent among minority voters after the Davanagere by-election.
In a post on X on Wednesday, Ashoka alleged that the state government, instead of addressing issues such as price rise, corruption, farmers’ distress and law and order, was attempting to retain its minority vote base by reviving the hijab issue.
Referring to the 2022 dress code introduced by the BJP government, which prohibited hijab in schools and colleges, Ashoka said the Karnataka High Court had upheld the policy and emphasised the importance of discipline in educational institutions.
He questioned the Congress government’s move to revisit the issue and asked whether setting aside the court-backed policy to benefit one community could be described as secularism.
Ashoka further alleged that while the government was willing to permit hijab, it continued to prohibit saffron shawls.
He accused the government of dividing students on religious lines rather than treating schools and colleges as spaces of equality.
Drawing a comparison with Mamata Banerjee’s government in West Bengal, Ashoka claimed that excessive appeasement politics had harmed the state and warned that the Congress in Karnataka could face a similar political response.
He said voters in Karnataka would teach the Congress a lesson for what he termed “vote-bank politics” and for compromising constitutional and judicial principles.
