Public broadcaster's fate to be decided next week

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says a vote on dismantling a new public broadcaster will come to a vote next week, Channel 2 reports, after a planned cabinet poll this week was derailed by Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon’s boycott of the meeting.

Critics say the controversial measure to take apart the yet-to-be-launched Kan public broadcaster is being enacted to give Netanyahu greater control over the media.

Netanyahu and his backers say the new broadcaster is a waste of money, and on Saturday a Likud source told the Israel Hayom daily that it had become a bastion of Yedioth Ahronoth publisher Arnon Mozes and other leftists.