Mumbai: The Kerala high court has dismissed the appeal by Malayalam news channel against the single judge order upholding the recent ban imposed on it by the ministry of information and broadcasting citing security concerns.

A division bench of chief justice S Manikumar and justice Shaji P Chaly upheld the order passed by the ministry of information and broadcasting refusing the broadcast license granted to MediaOne. “We have perused the confidential files and we are convinced that there is threat to national security,” said the bench while pronouncing the verdict.

Madhyamam Broadcasting Limited which operates the channel MediaOne had applied for renewal of permission on 3 May 2021 and was denied security clearance by the ministry of home affairs. Subsequently, the ministry of information and broadcasting revoked the company’s license to uplink and downlink Malayalam news channel MediaOne on 31 January citing security concerns.

As per the I&B ministry’s order, clause 9.2 of the uplinking guidelines stipulates that security clearance of a company and its directors is a prerequisite condition for grant of permission for TV channels.

In addition to the channel, appeals were also filed by its employees including its editor against the I&B ministry’s decision which were also rejected by a single judge on 8 February.

This is the second time that the channel has been barred from airing. In March 2020, Asianet News and MediaOne TV had been barred for 48 hours by I&B ministry citing security concerns.