Zakir Naik’s Peace TV denied rights for not meeting norms: Naidu

Information and Broadcasting Minister M Venkaiah Naidu said the channel, run by Naik’s Islamic Research Foundation, was denied the rights for “not fulfilling due conditions”.

“One allegation was levelled that Peace TV was denied permission for being Islamic. No such discrimination existed in India in the past, will never be there in future. These are wrong allegations,” he said, maintaining that Naik levelled the charge for his own promotion.

Naidu said the owners of Peace TV had applied for licence to broadcast the channel in 2008, but the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) turned it down after studying the same.

When the owners applied for permission again in 2009, the MHA sought details such as directors and funding of the channel, he said. “They did not submit the details. So, there was no question of giving it permission. There is no question of banning a channel which doesn’t have permission,” he said.

On the I&B Ministry’s role on the issue, Naidu said it had only written to states, alerting them on taking action against those, who downloaded the channel in an unauthorised manner and transmitted it “as it was against law”.

“This happened in 2008 and 2009. We are in 2016 now. This clears the situation. In 2012 too, the Ministry of Home Affairs had sought their details...for whatever reasons...someone may have approached it then. Those details they (the owners) could not furnish. That’s end of the story,” he said.