The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won one seat in Kerala – Thrissur represented by actor-turned-politician Suresh Gopi. It is considered a significant win for the saffron party where it has been trying to make inroads for quite some time now. It has registered its first Lok Sabha win in the southern states.
After the winner was announced, BJP workers celebrated the win by allegedly attacking the headquarters of media channel MediaOneTV and injuring one staff member. Saffron-clad BJP workers threw firecrackers and tried to trespass on the premises of the channel’s studio in Kozhikode.
Watch the video here.
MediaOneTV duel with Union govt
On January 31, 2022, MediaOne TV ceased broadcasts at noon after the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting refused to renew the channel’s licence to operate in the wake of the Ministry of Home Affairs’s revocation of the security clearance for Madhyamam Broadcasting Limited. MediaOne TV is one of the few Indian news channels whose ownership lies with an Islamic organization.
The move prompted the channel to seek help from the Kerala High Court. However, On February 8, 2022, the HC upheld the Union government’s decision.
On March 15, 2022, MediaOneTV appealed to the Supreme Court which, unfortunately, stayed the HC’s order citing national security grounds to justify the ban. It granted interim relief stating that the petitioners shall be permitted to continue operating the news and current affairs channel MediaOne on the same basis as the channel was being operated to the revocation of the security clearance.
Beef with Governor
On October 24, 2022, MediaOneTV along with three other news outlets – Kairali, Reporter and Jaihindi -were banned from entering the office of Kerala Governor Arif Mohammed Khan.
Khan had told media persons that he would speak to original journalists and not to ‘CPI-M cadres masquerading as journalists’, upsetting the Kerala Union of Working Journalists (KUWJ) stating that it encroached on the freedom of the press.
