Petitions filed to High Court against media overhaul law immediately after its passage

Petitions against the coalition’s highly controversial media overhaul law are filed immediately to the High Court of Justice by several government watchdog groups and political parties.

The petitions request that the High Court strike down the legislation, as well as issue an interim order freezing its implementation before a final ruling.

The law will significantly expand government control over Israel’s broadcast media and news sector by overhauling media regulation, removing restrictions on cross-ownership, and giving the government greater influence over television ratings and state advertising allocations.

The petitions allege a slew of severe procedural flaws in the legislative process, which they say should invalidate the law by itself, something the Knesset legal adviser has repeatedly warned of regarding the manner in which the media law was passed.

A petition filed by the Movement for Quality Government in Israel also points out that parts of the law come into effect immediately, which will “cause irreversible damage to the media market” just ahead of the upcoming election.

“The communications minister himself declared that his goal is to ‘crush the left’s monopoly on the media’ — in other words, to subordinate the press to the government,” says Yaniv Goldberg of the Movement for Quality Government.

“We have petitioned the court because without a free media there are no free elections, and we are confident that the court will stop this legislative ambush as well.”