Nation Live, a Noida based private news channel, currently in news for allegedly airing “unverified defamatory content” against Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath, was sent a show-cause notice by the Union ministry of information & broadcasting for allegedly functioning under a logo different from what it had obtained approval for.

The Gautam Budh Nagar district magistrate had, on June 9, written to the ministry seeking details of the channel. A day earlier, the city magistrate had issued a notice under Section 144 of the CRPC, asking for the channel premises to be sealed to stop immediate broadcasting from its Sector 65 premises. Meanwhile, the Noida police had arrested the channel head and editor on June 7, sparking severe backlash from the media community which had called the administrative action “authoritarian”.

Following this, the senior superintendent of police and district magistrate of Gautam Budh Nagar had briefed the media claiming that all actions had been taken within legal limits and that the DM had also written to the ministry. One of the anchors of the channel was later arrested.

“They did not have prior approval for broadcasting under ‘Nation Live’ and that is why we wrote to the ministry. They have now given a showcause notice to the channel,” district magistrate BN Singh, said.

In the notice, addressed to the channel’s Dehradun-based parent company, the ministry claimed that the company was granted permission on Februare 25, 2011 to uplink and downlink a news channel under the name “Network 10” but it has been noticed that the company was allegedly running the channel with dual logo – Nation Live – without approval of the ministry. The use of the new logo is in contravention of the terms and permission issued to the company and in violation of the uplinking guidelines, the notice claimed.

“The company is asked to show cause within seven days as to why action should not be taken against the company. Failing this it will be presumed that the company has no comments to offer and the ministry will proceed exparte,” said the notice.

Meanwhile, police are now on the lookout for the other two people who had been booked, along with three others, for defamation.

“We have a few leads and are working on them. The rest of them will also be nabbed soon,” said Devender Singh, station house officer, Phase 3 police station.

The families of the two media persons, who had been arrested on June 7, had put in a bail application, which was rejected by the chief judicial magistrate. The third suspect, an anchor with the channel, was also sent to judicial custody on June 11.

First Published: Jun 13, 2019 11:32 IST