The Centre has prohibited transmission of two Malayalam news channels, Asianet News and Media One, for 48-hours accusing of hurting communal sentiments while reporting the north-east Delhi violence.
The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting issued the separate orders on Friday imposing the prohibition on the transmission or re-transmission of the channels for 48 hours from 7.30 pm on Friday.
BJP's Rajya Sabha MP Rajeev Chandrasekhar is the non-executive chairman of Jupiter capital which is the major investor in Asianet News.
The Kerala Union of Working Journalist strongly condemned the decision and called for a demonstration on Saturday.
According to the orders, the reporting of the Delhi violence by the channels could have enhanced the communal disharmony and the channel should have reported in a balanced way. Both channels were accused of violating Rule 6 (1) (c)& (e) of the Programme Code prescribed under the Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Act which states that no programme should be carried in the cable service which contains attack on religions or communities or visuals or words contemptuous of religious groups or which promote communal attitudes.