Hundreds rally against deal to curb new public broadcaster

Hundreds of employees of Israel’s new public broadcasting cooperation demonstrated in Tel Aviv on Saturday against the closure of its news division, blocking a major junction and clashing with police as they accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of engaging in the authoritarian practices of the Turkish, Iranian and North Korean governments.

“Bibi, Kan (here) is not Erdogan!” protesters chanted, in a play on words using the broadcaster’s formal name and that of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has increasingly cracked down on press freedom in his country.

Demonstrators said a deal reached on Thursday between Netanyahu and Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon — to allow the broadcaster to start operating but without a news division — was an attempt by the government to wrest control over public broadcasting.

Netanyahu had threatened to dissolve the coalition and force new national elections rather than allow the new broadcaster to begin operating. Under the deal reached, Kan will lose its centerpiece news division, for which staff had been hired ahead of the intended launch on April 30. A new news division will be set up in the next few months, independent of the broadcasters’ management. In the meantime, the old Israel Broadcasting Authority’s (IBA) staffers will continue to provide the new station’s news.

Netanyahu is widely believed to have been opposed to the new body because he perceived it as being too left-wing and difficult to control, despite asserting that his primary concern was saving jobs at the IBA. Netanyahu has long complained of a media hostile to him.

Kan Chairman Gil Omer told Channel 2 the deal had left Israeli democracy trampled. “This week we became Turkey or Russia,” he said.

“The government has come in and taken control of a public broadcasting body,” he said, claiming the premier sought to rule on who the station’s reporters and editorials staff would be. “They’re throwing away hundreds of workers just because three or four of them aren’t to the prime minister’s liking.”

Omer scoffed at the suggestion that the broadcaster’s leadership was left wing. “I woke up one morning and read… that I’m a radical leftist, that I am the representative and emissary of [Yedioth Ahronoth publisher and Netanyahu foe Arnon] Mozes, that I have taken the corporation hostage. I have never expressed a political opinion. I’ve been in the media many years. I’ve never been to a demonstration, I don’t even have Facebook.”

Omer claimed that the only reason Netanyahu wanted the broadcaster’s news division shut down was that “they realized they’re dealing with professionals, without the ability to control who is hired.”

Opposition leader Isaac Herzog has said the deal means that the state broadcaster will now be “Bibi’s Pravda.” Left-wing Meretz leader Zahava Galon said the deal gives the prime minister “unprecedented political control over news broadcasts.”

Kahlon held a press conference Thursday, defending the deal reached with Netanyahu. “The battle in recent days has been a battle of principles, not ego,” he said. “It ensures freedom of the press, freedom of speech and it is keeping with the budget. According to the framework of the agreement, there will be no political influence [on the corporation].”

“This agreement prevented the passage of legislation that would have advocated for supervision of the press — a bill that [threatened] freedom of the press and terrorized many journalists and rightly so,” he went on.

Netanyahu, who had backed the 2014 legislation that established the new corporation, said in recent weeks that the new body was a “mistake.” His key complaint was the law’s guarantee of greater editorial independence for the new agency. One of the reported sticking points in negotiations was Netanyahu’s insistence on repealing key reforms aimed at ensuring editorial independence for the new corporation.

He also sought to unite Israel’s three separate broadcasting authorities under a politically appointed oversight body.

Under the new deal, that proposal will not be advanced and the body responsible for overseeing the new news corporation will be subject to the same regulations as Kan, according a statement released by the Prime Minister’s Office.

In order to pass the new reforms through the Knesset, the launch of the new broadcaster will be delayed by two weeks to mid-May, according to the PMO.

A spokesperson for Kan told The Times of Israel, however, that no one at the broadcaster had been informed of any of the details of the deal and that, as mandated by the current law, the corporation was still planning to begin transmissions on April 30.

Raoul Wootliff contributed to this report.