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The Indian government on Tuesday in parliament justified orders banning or temporarily suspending TV news channels, saying proper procedures were followed while such orders were passed, even as the Supreme Court stayed, till further orders, a ban handed to Malayalam news channel MediaOne by the government.
“The Government has followed the due process of law and the laid down procedure before taking a decision regarding cancellation of permission to TV news channel ‘Media One’. The matter is sub-judice before the Supreme Court,” Minister of Information and Broadcasting Anurag Thakur said in Lok Sabha (Lower House) on Tuesday in reply to a query from a fellow parliamentarian whether the government had conveyed to MediaOne the reasons for rejecting the renewal of licenses.
The government further said that satellite TV channels are granted permission for operations by the MIB under the uplinking and downlinking guidelines 2011.
“The details of channels whose permission has been cancelled for violation of the Guidelines is available on the Broadcast Seva Portal of the Ministry at URL: https://new.broadcastseva.gov.in. All TV channels are required to adhere to the Programme Code and the Advertising Code laid down under the Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Act, 1995,” Thakur’s reply further elaborated.
Several parliamentarians had brought up, indirectly and directly, the issue of banning TV channels, including news channels, in the Lok Sabha through questions directed at the MIB.
Another question by a different set of parliamentarians quizzed the government on the reasons for withholding security clearance of TV channels and details of the number of TV channels handed broadcasting bans since 2019.
Pointing out that all TV channels are licenced subject to security clearance from the Ministry of Home Affairs as per laid down procedures, Thakur said, “Since 2019, the Ministry has taken action of prohibiting transmission for varying time periods in respect of 15 TV channels for various violations under the Uplinking/Downlinking Guidelines and of the Programme Code.”
