‘Fight for survival’: Journalists claim Netanyahu behind news network’s overhaul
‘Emergency Conference to save Channel 13’ held after prominent Netanyahu critic Raviv Drucker’s investigative TV show canceled, ally of PM tapped to head network’s news division
Dozens of journalists gathered in Tel Aviv on Sunday for an “Emergency Conference to Save Channel 13” to protest the abrupt cancellation of a prominent investigative television show, amid an executive shakeup that would put an associate of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in charge of the network’s news division.
“Warzone,” Channel 13’s most-watched program, is run by veteran political correspondent Raviv Drucker, who has long been a thorn in Netanyahu’s side. The network’s recently appointed CEO, Emiliano Calemzuk, announced the show’s cancellation on Friday.
The decision came a month after Channel 13’s board of directors named Yulia Shamalov Berkovich, a former member of Knesset thought to be allied with Netanyahu, as the next head of the network’s news department.
Several of the channel’s leading reporters petitioned Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara to block the appointment, claiming it posed illegitimate political meddling in their journalistic work.
Nadav Topolski, chairman of Channel 13’s board of directors, on Sunday decried the journalists’ efforts. In a missive to employees, Topolski said that stakeholders were making a legitimate effort to maximize returns on their investment in the network, which has been on the brink of bankruptcy multiple times.
Speaking at the Emergency Conference on Sunday, Drucker said: “Our biggest enemy is the feeling that we’re against a powerful, sophisticated monster, that we are no match for it, and that there is no point to the struggle.”
Referring to failed attempts of Netanyahu’s past governments to assert control of independent news outlets, Drucker continued: “Let’s not cast doubt on our ability to win this just like we won in the [public broadcaster] and Army Radio.”
“Just like we won in the past in Channel 10, so we’ll win this fight,” Drucker added, referring to the predecessor of Channel 13’s news division.
Golan Yochpaz, a former CEO of the news division who is currently the executive director of Kan, warned that the public broadcaster was “next in line.”
“Israeli media is in a fight for survival,” said Yochpaz, saying that if the fight is lost, “democracy will pay a heavy price and may never be able to return to itself.”
Anat Saragusti, who leads the freedom of the press division at Israel’s journalists’ organization, said that “what is happening at the Channel 13 news is part of a master plan to destroy the freedom of the press.”
“It’s no coincidence that Drucker’s program is the first they want to destroy,” said Saragusti. “It’s no coincidence that it happens after the appointment of a CEO with no relevant journalism skills.”
Drucker’s three-decade career spans some of Israel’s most striking journalistic coups, some of which have led to criminal investigations. Among his most famous exposés are the “Bibi Tours” scandal, in which Netanyahu was accused of receiving improper gifts from private actors in the form of fully subsidized flights; the so-called Submarine Affair, in which Netanyahu and others are accused of profiteering off of unnecessary and strategically harmful naval purchases for Israel’s military; and, most recently, a damning report on rampant alleged graft in the Transportation Ministry, which is led by Netanyahu confidante Miri Regev.
The executive echelon of Channel 13, which is owned by Ukrainian-American oil magnate Len Blavatnik, has previously been accused of neutering the network to cater to Netanyahu. In 2020, the channel fired over 40 journalists, including some of Netanyahu’s most prominent critics. The Haaretz newspaper reported at the time that when testifying to police in one of Netanyahu’s corruption cases, Blavatnik said that the premier had urged his 2016 acquisition of the ailing network then in its past iteration as Channel 10.
Netanyahu’s relations with the media have long been a subject of scrutiny. Among his other ongoing corruption trials, Netanyahu is accused of receiving positive coverage from Yedioth Aharonoth, Israel’s most-read newspaper, in return for a promise to curtail Israel Hayom, a free right-leaning publication aligned with the premier.
Meanwhile, Israel has banned Qatari-owned news channel Al-Jazeera from operating in Israel, claiming the network was harming Israel’s security amid the war in Gaza. The ban led to the brief, unprecedented confiscation of Associated Press equipment.
