New communications minister says there’s ‘no room’ for public broadcasting in Israel

9 January 2023, 2:26 pm 1 Edit

Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi attends a digital journalism conference at Reichman University in Herzliya, January 9, 2023. (Avshalom Sassoni/Flash90)

Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi says there is no reason to support public broadcasting in the State of Israel.

Speaking at a digital journalism conference at Reichman University in Herzliya, Karhi says his goal is to “remove blocks and to remove regulation” in the industry to allow the free market to prevail.

Israel’s current public broadcaster, Kan, is among the bodies that “police the conversation, that cut off the connection between the public and the media,” he says.

“In my eyes, there is no room in this age for public broadcasting,” says Karhi, pointing to Kan as well as Army Radio.

Likud has long been accused of seeking to shut down the Kan public broadcaster because it is deemed too left-wing.