Communications minister calls to close Army Radio in defiance of court ruling

Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi calls on the government to “act immediately” to advance the process of closing down Army Radio, in defiance of a court ruling earlier today freezing the outlet’s shuttering.

The ruling by the court’s president, Isaac Amit, paused the cabinet’s decision last week to close to station, pending the court’s final ruling on petitions against the closure.

Karhi claimed, without elaborating, that the ruling was “illegal.”

“The government decision to close Army Radio is alive and well,” Karhi posts on X. “The interim order of Judge Amit was issued with no legal basis and does not override a government decision. Checks and balances in a democracy also need to stand against illegal actions by the judiciary.”

He added that the government must “act immediately to implement the government decision and to continue the process of closing ‘the home of the soldiers,’ which over the past two years has not stopped weakening IDF soldiers, according to soldiers’ testimony.”

Last week, in its vote to close Army Radio, the cabinet argued that the station’s political and current affairs programming “creates a fundamental difficulty for the IDF, stemming from the IDF’s involuntary involvement in political discourse,” and that its content “harms the Israel Defense Forces, its soldiers, and its unity.”

Petitions were swiftly filed against the decision, arguing that the decision was made in order “to harm media outlets seen as critical of the government” and to “economically benefit the owners of media outlets close to the government.”