The Information and Broadcasting Ministry has suspended the licence of Marathi news channel Lokshahi for 30 days.
Ministry sources said the action was taken as the channel’s operations, including content creation, were outsourced against the terms and conditions of the permission.
As per Clause 32 of the Uplinking and Downlinking Guidelines-2022, a TV channel or a teleport can be transferred by a company/LLP, granted permission under the Guidelines, to another company/LLP only with the prior approval of the I&B Ministry.
In September 2023, the news channel received a 72-hour suspension notice from the Ministry. It appealed in the Delhi High Court, which stayed the notice. In July last year, the channel aired a story related to an explicit video clip purportedly of BJP leader Kirit Somaiya.
The channel’s management have decided to approach the court against the suspension. In a statement, the channel said it replied to a show cause notice sent on November 17, 2023. On December 14, 2023, it asked for additional time to submit documents sought by the authorities. “Despite this, the sudden suspension announced on January 9 has shocked us...we will be fighting against this in a legal manner...,” it said.
