Hours after Malayalam news channel MediaOne announced that its transmission had been barred by the ministry of information and broadcasting, the Kerala High Court temporarily deferred the ministry's order until the next date of hearing.
According to LiveLaw, the court posted the matter to be heard on February 2 and said the implementation of the order "shall be deferred till day after tomorrow". LiveLaw noted that additional solicitor general of India, S Manu, "vehemently objected to the passing of the interim order" but the court said broadcasting should not be disrupted until the case was decided.
Earlier today, MediaOne announced it had gone off air after the ministry cited "security reasons" to block its transmission.
"The central government is unwilling to share the details of that," the channel's editor, Pramod Raman, said in a statement. "MediaOne has initiated legal steps against this order. Once that is completed, MediaOne will be available again for its viewers. With the hope that justice will prevail, we are temporarily stopping our transmission."
The channel then filed a writ petition before the high court, seeking that the ministry's order be set aside. The channel said it "has not involved itself in any sort of anti-national activity", LiveLaw reported.
It should be noted that MediaOne's broadcast had been temporarily blocked in March 2020 after the Delhi riots, for being "critical towards Delhi police and RSS".
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