Coalition push to privatize state media continues with bill to sell off Army Radio
Likud MK Nissim Vaturi’s proposed law echoes language found in controversial legislation, panned by press advocates, to sell off the Israel Public Broadcasting Corporation
Sam Sokol is the Times of Israel's political correspondent. He was previously a reporter for the Jerusalem Post, Jewish Telegraphic Agency and Haaretz. He is the author of "Putin’s Hybrid War and the Jews"
Amid a coalition push to shutter Israel’s public broadcaster Kan, Likud MK Nissim Vaturi has submitted a new bill to privatize Army Radio, arguing that “there is no need for a so-called military radio station, which is financed by the public, operates as a military unit and is staffed by soldiers.”
Vaturi’s bill, placed on the Knesset agenda earlier this week, would require the Second Authority for Television and Radio to carry out a tender for the sale of the station — along with affiliated network Galgalatz — to a private buyer.
Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi last year indicated that he intends to eventually shut down the Second Authority as well.
Army Radio — one of the most listened-to news stations in the country — was formed in 1950, shortly after the establishment of the state, and is staffed by a mix of young soldiers and seasoned journalists. The military’s operation and funding of a radio station with journalists responsible for investigating the doings of the Israel Defense Forces and the government has long been considered anachronistic, expensive, and an ethical minefield. Multiple defense ministers and chiefs of staff have looked into shuttering or privatizing it.
The bill would require the IDF to halt servicemembers’ work at the station within two years.
In 2023, then defense minister Yoav Gallant decided not to shut down or privatize Army Radio despite several years of announcements by successive governments and the military that they intended to do so.
While Hebrew media outlets reported that the new bill could be voted on by the Ministerial Committee for Legislation as early as Sunday, it does not currently appear on the high-level body’s agenda for next week.
Vaturi’s bill echoes the language of a similar piece of legislation that passed a preliminary reading 49-46 in the Knesset on Wednesday. That bill, sponsored by Likud MK Tally Gotliv, would require the government to issue a tender for the purchase of the television and radio networks operated by the Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation (IPBC) under the Kan label within two years.
The proposed legislation, which has been condemned as a threat to press freedom by journalists and opposition lawmakers, stipulates that if a buyer cannot be found in two years, the broadcaster will be shuttered completely and its intellectual property will revert to the government.
A separate bill aimed at granting the government increased control over the IPBC’s budget received the Ministerial Committee on Legislation’s backing earlier this month.
The twin bills dealing with the IPBC are being advanced at the same time as the coalition is promoting a third piece of legislation aimed at granting the government oversight of television ratings data.
The cabinet this week also called on all government ministries and agencies to boycott Haaretz after its publisher Amos Schocken referred to Palestinian terrorists as “freedom fighters,” comments he later partially walked back.
Critics, including the Foreign Press Association and the Union of Journalists in Israel, have accused the government of undermining democracy and press freedom while the bills’ backers argue that their legislation would liberalize the media market and increase competition.
יגאל גואטה. כל מילה על שלמה קרעי pic.twitter.com/mM3ySQzt9e
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On Thursday evening, Karhi threatened to sue former Shas MK Yigal Guetta for defamation after he alleged in an interview with Channel 12 that the communications minister enjoyed the political backing of media interests who would benefit from the IPBC’s closure.
