Staff Reporter / New Delhi
Jamaat-e-Islami Hind has welcomed the verdict of the Supreme Court of India which set aside the Center’s order for refusing to grant renewal of the broadcasting license to the Malayalam news channel Media One.
Talking to media persons the Vice President of JIH Prof. Salim Engineer said, “the Kerala-based TV channel is popular for becoming a voice for the voiceless and consistently raising issues in favour of the oppressed and the marginalized. It was denied security clearance by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA).
Prof. Salim agreeed with the observations of the apex court that – “The state is using national security as a tool to deny citizens remedies that are provided under the law. This is not compatible with the rule of law. While we have held that it would be impracticable and unwise for the courts to define the phrase national security, we also hold that national security claims cannot be made out of thin air.
There must be material backing such inference. The material on the file and the inference drawn from such material has no nexus.” The government had denied the security clearance over Media One claiming that the channel was airing anti-establishment content. He also concursed with the Supreme Court that clarified that – “The critical views of the channel…on policies of the government cannot be termed anti-establishment. The use of such terminology in itself represents an expectation that the press must support the establishment.
The action of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting by denying security clearance to a media channel based on the views which the channel is constitutionally entitled to hold produces a chilling effect on free speech and particularly on press freedom. Criticism of governmental policy can by no stretch of imagination be brought within the fold of any of the grounds stipulated in Article 19(2)”.
Prof. Salim expressed hope that the government would refrain from curbing the freedom of the press and welcome constructive criticism of its policies and decisions. “This will strengthen democracy and improve our ranking in the Press Freedom Index,” he added.
Prof. Salim also expressed concern over the report by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) saying – “More than 66% of the total income of seven national parties in 2021-22 came from unknown sources like electoral bonds, which accounted for a whopping 83% of their income.
The JIH Vice President has also expresseed concern over the reluctance of the government to discuss the Adani-Hindenburg report that resulted in the loss of lakhs of crores worth of stock evaluation (drop in market capitalization). He said, “the Adani episode damaged the reputation of our regulatory bodies and our auditors. It is reported that LIC of India also had exposure to the Adani group of companies. With such enormous developments, it is difficult to understand why the government does not want a discussion on the issue in Parliament and is refusing to accede to the Opposition’s demand to constitute a JPC for probing the Adani affair.”
