Move on Sun TV a threat to media

"Disappearance of Sun TV will benefit Jaya-led AIADMK."

The Union Home Ministry’s proposal to cancel security clearances to the hugely popular Sun TV group of television channels as a consequence to the cases faced by its promoters beats logic. While the cases against its owners – the Maran brothers, Kalanithi and Dayanidhi – are progressing in court, the outcome of which they will no doubt face, what is inexplicable is how do they make the Sun TV group a security threat. For a group with a bouquet of channels across all the four southern languages that in many ways heralded the coming of the age of television, the home ministry’s decision to deny security clearance to the channel seems to have a strong political underpinning. For, if security licence is denied, the Sun TV group will have to shut down operations.

The Chennai-headquartered group, with its affiliation to former Tamil Nadu chief minister M Karunanidhi and his Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) party, has played a key role in promoting the party over the last two decades. When Karunanidhi was arrested in a midnight raid in 2001 by his political rival J Jayalalitha, who was then chief minister, it was Sun TV news channel which aired it into Tamil Nadu homes continuously for a couple of days building popular opinion against the mode of arrest. Later, when Jayalalitha lost power, it was Sun TV news again which looped images of the property accumulated by her including the scores of footwear in her possession. Though there was a rupture of sorts between the DMK and Sun TV over a opinion poll published by the group’s newspaper Dinakaran, the close ties between the Maran brothers and Karunanidhi, their uncle, never soured completely. 

In Tamil Nadu’s feverish pace of politics, the disappearance of the Sun TV channels will benefit the ruling AIADMK led by Jayalalitha. What makes the Home Ministry’s stance questionable is the proximity of the ruling BJP to Jayalalitha. The question that will logically arise from the ministry’s decision is whether it is going against Sun TV to benefit its ally, the AIADMK. The Central government has not been able to convincingly argue why Sun TV becomes a security threat, so what if it’s promoters face charges of irregularity. The information and broadcasting ministry and Attorney-General Mukul Rohatgi too are not in agreement with the Home Ministry. By recommending that security clearance be denied to Sun TV, the government is directly threatening press freedom. The bigger danger is that the target is Sun TV today and it could be the turn of another media establishment tomorrow.