Attorney General Gali Baharav Meara sent an opinion today to Justice Minister Yariv Levin opposing the bill to privatize Israel’s public broadcaster, which broadcasts under the name Kan, and painting a bleak picture of the bill’s consequences for the telecommunications market. The bill, drafted by MK Tali Gotlev (Likud) and promoted by Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi, was approved today by the Ministerial Legislation Committee, which Levin chairs.
Under the bill, Israel Public Broadcasting Corporation will be closed within two years. The law governing its activity will be repealed.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.
“Complete and absolute abolition of public radio in Israel
A legal opinion written by an attorney. Avital Sombolinsky, Deputy Public Prosecutor for Public and Constitutional Law, and lawyer. “The immediate significance of the bill is the complete and absolute abolition of public radio in Israel and a fundamental change in the map of Israeli communications,” says Meir Levin, Deputy Attorney General for Economic Law. “A decision cannot be made to erase it from communications.” The main area of expression is hastily, in a private member’s bill, without a professional basis, and contrary to the way the Government has acted on this issue in the past. “This is a matter of great public importance, which has so far been examined as part of Government staff work which has included the activity of a series of public committees appointed by the Government to study the matter.”
The Attorney General’s representatives point to the connection between Gottliff’s bill and other moves promoted by the government, and conclude that “the suspicion arises that the basis of the bill lies in the desire to terminate the company’s broadcasting because of its content.”
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A draft law proposes to abolish public broadcasting in Israel
The government has recently promoted private bills from Likud MKs aimed at restricting press freedom. The bill proposed by MK Avichai Boron seeks to enable the government to significantly reduce the budget of the public broadcaster, while the bill proposed by MK Shalom Danino aims to place television viewership measurement under government control. Al-Karhi refused to extend the term of two members of the Foundation’s Board of Directors, which in effect paralyzed the work of the Board of Directors.
The opinion of the Attorney General in this context states that “even if the various measures are not ultimately implemented, they have a significant and severe negative impact on the company and other telecommunications organizations in Israel, each individually, and certainly cumulatively.”
“The message to the telecom market is clear, that criticizing the government or broadcasting content that the government does not like would result in steps being taken against telecom organizations and tied up with immediate action, with employees out of action, through ‘promotion of private members’ bills,’” the opinion said.
Contrary to the messages that the Communications Minister constantly repeats, that the measures he is promoting are aimed at increasing competition and diversity in the industry, the opinion says: “Ceasing the corporation’s news and current affairs broadcasts has a clear negative impact on the range of opinions in the Israeli marketplace of ideas,” and that the draft law will cause harm Great for freedom of expression and the press.
Published by Globes, Israel Business News – en.globes.co.il – on November 24, 2024.
© Copyright Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd., 2024.
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