By IANS
New Delhi : The government has refused permission to Malayalam TV channel Jeevan TV to continue uplinking in India as it reportedly violated guidelines by telecasting news and current affairs programmes.
The decision was taken after the home ministry did not give security clearance to the channel, promoted by the Catholic Church of Kerala.
“The channel had made a fresh application to conform to the revised guidelines, but failed to get security clearance,” the information and broadcasting ministry said here Friday.
All DTH service providers and cable operators have been instructed not to carry this channel on their DTH/Cable network, the ministry had said.
The channel had initially applied for uplinking permission in 2002 under the guidelines prevalent at the time. However, after the government promulgated separate guidelines for news and current affairs channels in November 2005, Jeevan Telecasting Corporation Ltd was asked to apply for fresh permission as it was also carrying news and current affairs programmes.
When the government promulgated separate uplinking guidelines for news and current affairs, all existing channels carrying news and current affairs in their programme content were asked to conform to these guidelines.
Jeevan TV became the fifth Malayalam news channel in the country when it was granted permission to uplink from India. The others were the regional Doordarshan Kendra, apart from Asianet, Surya and Kairali.
The channel was launched in August 2002 and was operating from a studio and uplinking centre located in Kerala’s commercial capital, Kochi.
Jeevan TV started broadcasting family entertainment programmes and claimed to have blended them with moral education. But soon news and education shows became the staple fare of the Malayalam channel.