Knesset advances bill to allow government to control budget for Kan public broadcaster

The Knesset House Committee votes to transfer a bill to allow the government to determine the budget of the Kan public broadcaster from the Knesset Economics Committee, whose leadership opposes the measure, to the Finance Committee.

This represents a victory for Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi, who has been engaged in a two-year legislative effort to dismantle the public broadcaster.

Karhi says the bill will remove power from “bureaucrats and legal advisers” and give it to the Knesset, in a post on X. He vows to continue to “dismantle the deep state” until “we return our Jewish and democratic state to the people.”

The request to transfer the bill was prompted because the Economics Committee is led by Likud MK David Bitan, who has blocked previous efforts by Karhi to hamper the public broadcaster.

Opponents of the move, including Kan itself, argue that allowing the government to set Kan’s budget would open the door to political interference and mark another attempt to harm independent media.

It also follows the communications minister’s appearance yesterday before the High Court of Justice, which is hearing petitions over his refusal to appoint new members to the council of the Kan Public Broadcasting Corporation — a move that has limited the body’s ability to function, including approving a budget, for the past year.

Last July, the court ordered Karhi to extend the tenure of one council member until it issues a final ruling on the matter, which he refused to do.

On X, Karhi says that he “believes in the supremacy of the law – not in the distorted interpretations of the attorney general’s legal advisers.” Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara has long opposed his wider media overhaul legislation.

Karhi further suggests that he will continue to defy legal decisions that he disagrees with, saying that “court rulings will be respected, as long as they are in accordance with the law.”