Mamata Banerjee on Saturday backed Kolkata TV, a Bengali news channel that recently received a showcause notice from the information and broadcasting ministry asking it to explain why permission granted to it under uplinking guidelines should not be scrapped following the home ministry’s denial of “security clearance” to it.

“I’m very sorry to hear that Kolkata TV is facing such an assault... I think which TV will support whom, which journalist will support whom and which media will support whom are their personal decisions…. I will appeal to the central government that they shouldn’t try to shut Kolkata TV because of vendetta politics,” the chief minister said at Nabanna, adding it had become the Centre’s practice to shut dissenters.

BJP Bengal chief Sukanta Majumdar later said he did not consider Kolkata TV to be a news channel but the mouthpiece of one particular party.