The editor of the Malayalam news channel MediaOne, which is engaged in a court battle for its broadcasting licence that was revoked by the Centre nearly two weeks ago, has said its operations are an open book and anyone is welcome to examine how it functions.

“MediaOne operations are an open book, one that can be examined by anyone anytime,” editor Pramod Raman said, addressing a public protest in Kerala’s Alappuzha district on Saturday. He said that while large sections of the society had come out in support, some were spreading lies about the channel and its employees.

“My colleagues and I are facing personal attacks on social media. Our only fault is that as media people we honestly stood for the poor and the marginalised. Now our decision is to continue that same ‘fault’,” Raman said.

Only the BJP and its media platforms have justified the action against MediaOne, pointing to the fact that some of the channel’s promoters are members of the Jamaat-e-Islami. The outfit, known for its rigid outlook on religion, is not banned in India.

MediaOne first went off air for close to seven hours on January 31 after the Union information and broadcasting ministry revoked its licence citing lack of security clearance from the Union home ministry. Kerala High Court that day granted a stay on the order. The channel was again blacked out on February 8 when a single bench of Kerala High Court upheld the government order revoking the licence. MediaOne has since been visible only on its YouTube channel.

A large number of protests and solidarity events have been held against the ban on the channel, which has now appealed before a division bench of the high court.

“MediaOne will be back before you after redeeming itself through a legal battle. Let no one have any doubt about that,” Raman asserted.

The high court single bench upheld the stay after going through files submitted by the home ministry but did not reveal their contents on the ground of national security.

On Saturday, Raman said: “We are in an extreme crisis and a period of major challenges.”

He acknowledged the massive support received from media platforms across the country after the high court dismissed MediaOne’s petition challenging the order revoking its licence.

The editor said the support was more significant since it was a combined voice of solidarity for all media organisations.

“This is not support for MediaOne alone. It is not support and protest against the Union government’s order revoking our licence. Instead, it is support for all media organisations,” Raman, whose channel has often been critical of the RSS, said.

Initially, only the Left-backed channels had shown open solidarity towards MediaOne. But the February 3 court order brought all competitors rallying behind MediaOne with prime-time discussions, editorials and daily news updates.

Raman questioned the rationale behind the Centre suddenly finding the channel involved in anti-national activities after MediaOne had been in business for close to 10 years.

The channel had in 2011 received a 10-year licence for uplinking and a five-year licence for downlinking before launching operations in 2013. The downlinking licence was renewed after security clearance for another five years in 2016.

“If they were so convinced there was a national security lapse on the part of MediaOne, the government should have taken action at that moment, which they did not do,” Raman said.

CPM state committee member and former minister G. Sudhakaran, who presided over Saturday’s protest, noted that the violation of the fundamental right to freedom of expression was tantamount to suspending several other rights.

“The Constitution allows freedom of association — to organise meetings and form organisations. What is the point in organising a meeting and not being able to speak? So there is no point in organising any meeting in the absence of freedom of expression,” he said.

Sudhakaran slammed the BJP for targeting MediaOne and reminded the party about its claims on opposing the Emergency in the mid-1970s.

“One of the main beneficiaries of the Emergency is the BJP, which has since grown. Yet they are now doing today what they had then fought against,” he said.