Southern Lights | The ban on a Karnataka TV channel raises questions on freedom of press, Supreme Court steps in
In 2020, the channel was forced to go off-air for a week after the Bangalore police blocked access to its social media platforms in a blackmail case.
The Supreme Court’s decision to stay the Karnataka high court order restraining the broadcast of Kannada channel Power TV and the bench led by Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud calling the case against the media entity a situation of “political vendetta” has received mixed signals from political leaders in Karnataka.
While the ruling Congress has questioned the Centre’s lapses in renewing licenses of media houses, the Janata Dal (Secular) distanced itself from the case citing that the order pertained to the petitioners as individuals and not leaders of its party.
“The two petitioners Ramesh Gowda and Ravikanthe Gowda independently filed a case in the Karnataka High Court asking for cessation of the news broadcast because the coverage made insinuations against them and damaged their reputation. Since it is a matter about their standing, the party does not feel the need to respond to the issue,” said Prathap L Kanagal, head of JDS’ IT wing. While Gowda is a former MLC, Ravikanthe Gowda is inspector general, central range, covering the areas in Bangalore’s periphery.
On the other hand, Congress has questioned the Union government’s delay in renewing Power TV’s license and the information and broadcasting ministry’s ability to function independently.
“There are several larger issues here. One is the court’s interference in deciding the functioning of a media channel, the second is the ability of the media house to function despite its license’s expiry, and finally, the Centre’s hand in playing ball and not renewing licenses on time and following the rules of the land,” said Nivedith Alva, Congress spokesperson in the state.
Quite surprisingly, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which is in alliance with the JDS, has not responded yet. While the party condemned the alleged sexual acts committed by Prajwal and Suraj Revanna, grandsons of JDS supremo HD Deve Gowda, it is yet to make its stance known publicly.
Ostensibly, the case seems to pertain to the two petitioners. However, the JDS leaders who HT spoke to said that the party had taken exception to the continuous stream of stories exposing Prajwal and his brother Suraj Revanna’s alleged sexual misconduct. In the recent past, since videos of Prajwal Revanna’s involvement in scandals involving his misdemeanour surfaced, Power TV also targeted several BJP leaders in its TV programmes.
Prajwal is currently being tried under various provisions of the Indian Penal Code and the CrPC for three cases of sexual misconduct and harassment of women filed by victims in Hassan.
Two courts, two conflicting orders
However, before the case made its way to the Supreme Court, Power TV’s ban came to light on June 26 when a single judge bench of the Karnataka High Court passed a restraining order preventing the channel from airing content until further orders. The orders by both benches of the HC were on account of Ramesh Gowda and the police officer who had filed two independent petitions asking for action to be taken on the channel’s “malicious intent” to target the two petitioners.
The petitioners told the Karnataka High Court that the channel operators Power Smart Media Pvt Ltd and Mitcon Infraprojects Pvt Ltd, the owner of Power TV, not only violated court orders issued in April but also continued to broadcast news despite not having a valid license.
Subsequently, the HC also issued a show-cause notice to the channel for operating without a valid license since 2021. Subsequently, when Power TV appealed to the HC Division Bench, it refused to interfere with the Single Bench order following which the channel approached the SC.
This HC order was challenged by the media company in the Supreme Court. The petitioner requested the SC to overturn the decision by the Karnataka HC’s division bench, which upheld a stay order issued by a single bench, effectively halting the channel’s broadcast.
In the Supreme Court, a three-member bench comprising CJI DY Chandrachud and justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra heard the petition filed by Power TV’s owners.
The top court, in its July 15 hearing reprimanded the Union government. The Supreme Court asked the Centre to respond by declaring the names of all media channels that had applied for an extension of their license but were yet to be granted permission.
“Produce data before us on how many channels applied for renewal of license and how many of these channels were asked to stop telecasting. We want to know the number of TV channels that applied for renewal in the last three years and, while pending approval, were ordered to go off the air,” the bench said.
“The more we hear you, the more we are convinced that it is political vendetta…That is why we are inclined to protect the freedom of speech and expression. He wanted to broadcast some allegations regarding the sex scandal in the state. This Court is duty-bound to allow him…this is sheer political vendetta and nothing else,” the CJI said.
In response, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, who appeared for the Government of India (GoI) told the three-judge bench that the channel was issued a showcase notice over Power TV subletting its uplink and downlinking license.
The hearing on Power TV’s petition against the ban was, however, adjourned to July 22.
Power TV’s previous brushes with the law
The channel has had earlier brushes with the law. In 2020, the channel was forced to go off-air for a week after the Bangalore police blocked access to its social media platforms after a businessman filed a case of alleged blackmail by the channel owners. Rakesh Shetty, the owner was accused of extortion in 2020.
Shetty was also questioned by the police after several programmes were run criticising former Karnataka chief minister BS Yediyurappa and his family for what the channel called “corrupt practices” in awarding public housing projects to contractors by the Bangalore Development Authority.
A relatively small player in Karnataka, the media house has channels and broadcasts programmes in Tamil, Telugu, and Malayalam besides Kannada. The Kannada channel was launched in 2018.
Deepika Amirapu is a freelance journalist based in Hyderabad. Each week, Southern Lights examines the big story from one of the five states of South India.
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