On the 6th of March 2020, two Kerala based Malayalam News channels, namely Asianet News and MediaOne were awarded 48-hour token ban by the Information and Broadcasting Ministry for their shoddy ‘coverage of the Delhi riot’. Both these channels displayed a black screen since 7.30 pm on March 6 (Friday), when they were taken off-air, OpIndia has reported.

The channels, Asianet and Mediaone were supposed to resume broadcast only at 7.30 pm on March 8 (Sunday) after completion of the 48-hour ban.

The order had alleged that the two Malayalam News channels have indulged in biased coverage of the Delhi riots. They are being critical of the RSS and Delhi police and supporting a particular community, showing those who supported Citizenship Amendment Act in poor light.

Reportedly, the ban against Asianet News was lifted at 1:30 AM and the ban on MediaOne was lifted at 9:30 AM.

Both channels were taken off air citing two rules under the Cable Television Networks Rules, 1994:

• Rule 6(1 c)- says that no programme should be carried which contains an attack on religions or communities or visuals or words contemptuous of religious groups or which promote communal attitudes.
• Rule 6(1 e)- says that no programme should be carried which is likely to encourage or incite violence or contains anything against maintenance of law and order or which promote anti-national attitudes.

A similar 24-hour ban was imposed on NDTV by I&B Ministry, in 2016 for their coverage of Pathankot terrorist attack.