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Sunday, July 26, 2026
Government appointee resigns as head of broadcasting regulatory body after court freezes her tenure
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The government-appointed head of the Second Authority, the commercial broadcasting regulatory body, announced this evening that she was resigning her position, months after the High Court of Justice froze her appointment.
Earlier this year the court halted the entry of Yifat Ben Hai Segev into the role, as well as two other government appointees to the body, as it examined petitions against their appointment claiming they were part of an effort to politicize the council and muzzle the media.
“There’s an absurd situation here,” Ben Hai Segev said on pro-government network Channel 14. “There is still no ruling from the High Court of Justice. Four months have passed. I didn’t take the position for the sake of the position. I saw myself as a representative of the public. In such an absurd situation, I can’t just sit on the sidelines, because silence is complicity.”
Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara has said Ben Hai Segev’s appointment should be annulled, citing potential conflicts of interest and improper procedure.
Ben Hai Segev is a former chair of the Cable and Satellite Broadcasting Council who also served on the advisory board for Channel 13. She was a witness for the prosecution in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s criminal trial, but reversed her testimony in court in 2022 from what she had originally told investigators before the premier was indicted in 2020.
She has railed at media outlets and the attorney general, while accusing them of engaging in a plot against her.
The other two appointees are outspoken supporters of Netanyahu.
The Union of Journalists has claimed that the changes to the regulatory council were made, in part, “to thwart” a proposed buyout of Channel 13, and said that three new members of the Second Authority council appointed by the government have “clear political ties to the prime minister.
“The Second Authority Council should be staffed by professionals, for the benefit of the entire public, and not political appointees who act in the interests of the government,” the Union of Journalists told the High Court injunction.
“This is an exceptional, distorted situation that must not be normalized,” Ben Hai Segev said this evening. “We have entered a recurring pattern in which the government makes an appointment, someone goes to the High Court, and the High Court stops it.”
The Times of Israel Community.