Bill that would let government appoint Kan governing council passes preliminary reading

A bill giving the government substantially increased influence over the Kan public broadcaster’s governing council passes a preliminary reading 53-48 in the Knesset plenum.

The bill, sponsored by Likud MK Osher Shekalim, aims to allow the government to appoint, upon the recommendation of the communications minister, all 12 members of the powerful body. The council is empowered to appoint senior officials to the public broadcaster, determine its working procedures, set its various policies, and lay out and approve its annual work plan. However, it has not been able to operate since November, when the end of the tenure of two members brought it down below a quorum seven members.

It is the task of the governing council’s search committee to appoint new members to the council, but that body also cannot function at present since the previous chairman, Moshe Drori, appointed by Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi, resigned in November. Karhi has also not appointed a new chairman of the search committee.

Addressing the Knesset plenum, Karhi says: “No one will stop the media reform. This reform and these changes are intended to protect citizens, to expand diversity, to provide a free and competitive market.”

In response, Opposition Leader Yair Lapid declares that “the media’s job is to make sure the public hears and knows everything the government doesn’t want them to hear and know. That’s why Minister Karhi wants to neuter the broadcasting authority. That’s the whole purpose of the law.”