Knesset panel votes to split media overhaul bill despite legal opposition

The special Knesset committee established to deliberate Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi’s controversial media overhaul bill votes to split the legislation into separate bills, despite objections from both the committee’s legal advisers and Knesset Legal Adviser Sagit Afik.

The move allows the coalition to push forward parts of the overhaul that would establish a new broadcasting regulator, while postponing contentious provisions dealing with news providers, oversight and enforcement, and obligations of international streamers.

Under the proposed framework, the Second Authority for Television and Radio would continue, for the time being, to oversee all entities currently under its jurisdiction, and plans to shut it down would not move forward at this stage. Its core powers would remain intact, except for oversight of original productions, which would be transferred to the new authority.

The vote is held following a heated session and amid an uproar from opposition lawmakers who call the vote illegal and accuse the coalition of rushing through major legislation without adequate scrutiny.

Coalition lawmakers argue the split legislation is necessary because rapid changes in the media market have left streaming services largely unregulated and because there is insufficient time to complete work on the entire bill before upcoming elections.

Legal advisers, however, warn that the proposed split violates accepted legislative practice by removing core sections of the bill simply because the committee has not finished debating them.

Appearing before the committee, Afik says she has opposed the move since March and argues that the remaining legislation cannot stand as a coherent law on its own without provisions governing news providers and enforcement.

“I am not familiar with a case in which provisions were separated simply because there was not enough time to discuss them,” she says.