The Supreme Court has overruled a judgment against the telecast ban on Malayalam news channel- MediaOne, which was laid by the Union Government in the mid of this week, it was claimed that the action which was criticized by the government cannot be called as an“anti-establishment” and a combined view on issues covered from socio-economic community to political beliefs causes huge risk to democracy and detained the claims regarding the national security which can’t be made invisible to refuse the remedies provided to the citizens under the law.
A special leave petition Judgment was passed by the Supreme Court for the case filed by the company managing the news channel MBL (Madhyamam Broadcasting Ltd) under frightful and authoritative circumstances, assaulting the Judgment given by the Kerala’s High Court and sustaining the decision of MIB (Ministry of Information and Broadcasting) to not extend the broadcasting license of the channel, wanting the security approval from the Ministry of Home Affairs. The separate challenging petition was filed against the High Court by the editor of the channel and Working Journalists of the Kerala Union.
The High Court’s approach of justifying the Centre’s decision was merely based on the sealed documents and that was heavily criticized by the Supreme Court.
The Court said that -By granting the Protection from disclosure to the documents ,it would purely lead to political criticism. The access to the information cannot be limited because of the fundamental right and freedom to access information and that distressed the criticism of actions in a democratic government which was introduced to control free government.
The people of the State are using national security as a weapon to deny citizens rights that are provided by the law. This is not tolerable under the law.
The Ministry of Home Affairs was totally dependent on the reports of the television channel on Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), National Register of Citizens (NRC), judiciary criticism, state criticism etc., to the state which is against the social,economical and political principles of the society. But the SC said that the judgment cannot be given only on the basis of the revealed documents.
In the judgment given by the Supreme Court it is said that the self-governing channels have the authority to reveal the functionings and the performances of the State.
The media has the responsibility to tell the truth to power, display the hard facts to the citizens and empower them to opt for the best choices that drive democracy in the right path. The limitations on the liberty of the media forces the citizens to ponder along the same direction.
