Attacking media outlets, Netanyahu asks why public broadcaster should be funded
Prime minister also reportedly tells defense, communications ministers to clarify need for Army Radio; Diaspora Minister Chikli accuses Haaretz newspaper of ‘incitement’
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"
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Diaspora Affairs Minister Amichai Chikli accused a number of Israeli media outlets of incitement and questioned why the government needs to fund public broadcasting that it cannot control, according to leaked comments from Sunday’s cabinet meeting.
“Why should it be funded?” Netanyahu asked, referring to the Kan public broadcaster. “There is enormous waste there without any control. Almost a billion shekels. Let the market decide! Give the citizens of Israel the choice,” he continued, according to reports in multiple Hebrew outlets that did not cite a source.
“The Communications Committee will reach a decision in the coming days,” Netanyahu reportedly added.
Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi has vowed since taking office more than two years ago to shut down the Kan public broadcaster, putting forward several different plans that have all since stalled.
In February, Knesset Economic Affairs Committee chairman David Bitan (Likud) rejected a plan from Karhi to establish a new “media committee” to bypass Bitan’s opposition to a coalition bill aimed at shutting down Kan.
The most recent proposed legislation, part of a larger media overhaul package advocated by Karhi, stipulates that if a private buyer for Kan cannot be found within two years, the broadcaster will be shuttered completely, and its intellectual property will revert to the government. The bill passed a preliminary reading in the Knesset plenum in November 2024, but when it later came up for discussion in the Economic Affairs Committee, Bitan said that he “can’t advance this bill for a simple reason — public broadcasting is necessary.”
Netanyahu is reported to be in favor of Karhi’s efforts to circumvent Bitan’s committee to advance the controversial legislation.
Turning to the publicly funded Army Radio, Netanyahu asked why the station is needed, stating that Karhi and Defense Minister Israel Katz should look into the matter, reports said. Shuttering or privatizing the popular Army Radio is another proposal that has circulated for close to a decade but never advanced.
Netanyahu’s Likud party is also pushing another bill to privatize the Army Radio. The bill would require the Second Authority for Television and Radio to carry out a tender for the sale of the station — along with the affiliated channel Galgalatz — to a private buyer.
Later Sunday, Karhi issued a statement saying he is working together with Katz to shutter Army Radio, which he accused of becoming “detached from its original mission.”
In a letter to fellow Katz, Karhi wrote that Army Radio, “which was originally set up as a military station to support and connect with IDF soldiers, has long since become a political stronghold, detached from its original purpose.”
He asserted that it is “unreasonable for a democratic country to operate a military radio station, let alone a political one, that, instead of being ‘the soldiers’ home,’ depresses them.”
Karhi said that he has drafted a joint Defense Ministry and Communications Ministry decision to shutter the radio station, and requests that he bring it for government approval “as soon as possible,” once the necessary preparations for the station’s closure have been made.
Also in the cabinet meeting, Chikli reportedly attacked the liberal Haaretz daily, accusing it of engaging in “incitement” and doing “enormous damage to the country” through its critical reporting.
Last November, the cabinet announced that it was severing all ties with Haaretz.
Netanyahu and Chikli’s comments come two days after the Likud party issued a statement calling Kan “illegitimate,” accusing it of making fun of the prime minister’s late brother Yoni Netanyahu, a fallen IDF serviceman, during a comedy sketch. Kan denied that it had been making fun of, or had mentioned, Yoni Netanyahu, but rather had lampooned the premier himself.
Responding to criticism in the cabinet on Sunday, Kan said in a statement that “in every opinion poll, including in recent days, the Israeli public, from left to right, with a clear majority, opposes harming the broadcaster and sees it as a reliable national media tool. The delegitimization of the broadcaster’s workers in an attempt to threaten it and silence it is not appropriate in a democratic country.”
Kan said its establishment is “one of the most successful public reforms carried out by the Likud itself, and the Israeli public does indeed choose Kan every day — with two billion digital views per year, with more than a million listeners on Kan’s radio networks, with hundreds of thousands of viewers of television content every day.”
Netanyahu and his cabinet’s attacks on the outlets came as Hebrew media reported public frustration at the prolonged captivity of 59 hostages still held by terrorists in the Gaza Strip and anger at government efforts to weaken the judiciary while firing key gatekeepers and its focus on advancing divisive legislation during wartime. Saturday night saw tens of thousands attend demonstrations around the country on those issues.
The prime minister has also publicly accused Kan of “fake news” and “lies,” while telling Channel 12 that it spreads “slander” and “lies” during a heated exchange with reporters from both networks the day before he was to give testimony in his ongoing corruption trial last December.
Netanyahu is charged in three graft cases, but has insisted on his innocence while asserting that he is the victim of a witch hunt by a left-leaning legal system and media. Two of the cases against him involve allegations that he tried to improperly influence media coverage.
The Times of Israel Community.