Govt lifts ban on 2 Malayalam news channels over Delhi riots coverage: Report

The ministry of information and broadcasting on Saturday lifted the restriction on two Kerala-based news channels over their inclusion of the savagery in Delhi over the altered citizenship law, news organization PTI cited sources as saying.

The I&B service forced a 48-hour prohibition on two Malayalam news channels Asianet News and Media One on Friday for their inclusion of the brutality in north-east Delhi, which it said could "upgrade shared disharmony".

The prohibition on Asianet News was lifted at 1.30 am, while the restriction on Media One was lifted at 9.30 am on Saturday, a source at the service of data and broadcasting told PTI. The two channels had allegedly kept in touch with the service looking for denial of the bans, following which it was lifted.

The legislature on Friday said it had discovered the two stations infringing upon the program code endorsed under the Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Act, 1995 after which the service requested the denial of transmission or re-transmission of the stations for 48 hours with impact from 7.30 pm on March 6.

The request on Asianet News TV stated, "while announcing such basic episode, the channel (Asianet News) ought to have taken most extreme consideration and ought to have detailed it reasonably. Such announcing could improve the shared disharmony the nation over when the circumstance is profoundly unstable". The news channel reacted to the notification saying its reports were accurate and never proposed to assault a religion or a network.

Prior in the day previous Union priest and Congress pioneer, P Chidambaram had condemned Center's choice to suspend the transmission of two news channels."The Ministry of I&B assumes the jobs of Prosecutor, Jury and Judge. This is a tragedy of equity. All media substances should dissent energetically. The legislature must piece the Shutdown request immediately," he tweeted.