Nearly three weeks after 'Live India' channel was banned for airing a fake sting operation defaming a school teacher for running alleged sex racket, the government on Friday withdrew the ban after the channel said it was misled by reporter and promised ethical conduct.

Following the revocation of ban, the channel has been permitted to go on air from midnight.

"The channel submitted that there was no deliberate attempt to defame anybody by telecast of the said sting operation," the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting said in a statement. The channel also submitted that it had exercised all due diligence and care as per prevailing industry practice".

"It subsequently emerged that the reporter had misled and unfortunately the sting operation telecast on August 30, 2007 took a different shape," the channel, pleading for revoking the ban, said. In this light, the channel requested the ministry to reconsider the prohibition of transmission of the channel for one month which, it said, has put a question mark on the
commercial viability of their channel.

The ministry said the channel had assured that it is committed to effectively using journalism in the best interests of the nation and society by following the highest standards of journalism.

The channel also assured that it would observe and minutely comply with all the relevant provisions of the Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Act, 1995 and the license conditions.