MUMBAI: The hue and cry over the security clearance norms of the Ministry of Home Affairs has worked in favour of the media sector after all. Recently, the ministry stated that it had streamlined and relaxed national security clearance norms for certain sensitive sectors of the economy including the media sector.

This was stated by the Minister of State for Home Affairs, Haribhai Parathibhai Chaudhary in a written reply to a question by Venkatesh Babu T.G. in the Lok Sabha on 11 August.

In the reply, Chaudhary stated that the new policy guidelines are aimed at bringing about a healthy balance between meeting the imperatives of national security and facilitating the ease of doing business and promoting investment in the country. As part of these guidelines, the ministry has included a proposal to do away with national security clearance for multi system operators (MSOs) in the media sector.

Recently, the ministry as well as the Narendra Modi - led government faced criticism by the media over the Sun Group-promoted Red FM case, wherein the ministry did not provide the network a good ahead for Phase III auctions. It was only after the Delhi and Madras High Courts granted the network the permission that it could participate in the Phase III auctions.