Knesset gives first reading to bill to abolish public broadcasting

Today, the Knesset gave a first reading to the bill submitted by MK Tali Gottlief (Likud) and approved by the Ministerial Legislation Committee to privatize the Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation, which broadcasts under the name “Kan.” The vote was in favor of 49 Knesset members versus 46 members. against.

Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi said in the debate: “There is no need for public broadcasting to be funded by the public,” and that “the corporation’s news and current affairs broadcasting is sterile, biased, and expresses an imagined reality.”

Opposition leader Yair Lapid said that Hater and Gottlief decided to eliminate the free media, and then deal with everything that was left. He described the bill as a threat to democracy, and called on the Israeli media to oppose it “because it is on its way to you.”

Under the bill, Israel Public Broadcasting Corporation will be closed within two years. The law that governed its activity will be repealed. The Second Authority for Radio and Television will issue a tender to select the licensee to broadcast television on the channels used by the General Authority for Radio and Television. If a winner is selected, it will be licensed for private commercial broadcast. If no winner is chosen, “the public broadcaster will cease broadcasting and cease all broadcast-related activities within two years of this law taking effect.” The bill proposes the same treatment for public broadcasting, and a tender will be issued for the corporation’s news and current affairs station, Reshet Bet, with the aim of privatizing it.

The Ministerial Legislation Committee approved the draft law despite the objections of the Attorney General’s Office, which stated in the legal opinion submitted to the committee: “A decision to erase a major platform for expression cannot be taken hastily from the field of communications, in a private member’s draft law.” “Without any professional basis, and contrary to the way the Government has acted on this matter in the past, it is a matter of great public importance, which has so far been examined as part of the work of Government employees which has included the activity of a series of public committees appointed by the Government to study the matter,” the opinion added. “Ceasing the institution’s news and current affairs broadcasts has a clear negative impact on the scope of opinion in the Israeli marketplace of ideas.”

Published by Globes, Israel Business News – en.globes.co.il – on November 27, 2024.

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