Ministers back bill giving government control over public broadcaster’s budget
State’s Kan broadcaster warns against political intervention; deputy AG says legislation would ‘violate constitutional rights to freedom of expression and freedom of the press’
Sam Sokol is the Times of Israel's political correspondent. He was previously a reporter for the Jerusalem Post, Jewish Telegraphic Agency and Haaretz. He is the author of "Putin’s Hybrid War and the Jews"
The Ministerial Committee on Legislation on Sunday gave its backing to a bill granting the government increased control over the budget of the Israel Public Broadcasting Corporation, generating concern over the continuing independence of the country’s public broadcaster.
The budget of the IPBC, which operates the Kan public broadcaster, currently comes from several sources, including advertising and the licensing of archival material, as well as through vehicle license fees charged by the Transportation Ministry.
Under Likud MK Avichai Boaron’s proposed legislation, the IPBC’s funding would come directly from the state budget rather than from vehicle license fees, with the approval of the government, which would be granted the power to “change or cancel an item in the corporation’s budget.”
The bill’s explanatory notes state that ministries across the board have had to tighten their belts during the current war, and therefore “it is appropriate and required of all public bodies in Israel to join the common effort in one way or another.”
In a statement on Sunday after the bill advanced, Kan said that its current budgetary structure is designed “to prevent any political intervention in its content.” Changing that, it said “is another attempt to harm the independence and significance of the IPBC” and would result in major cuts to its programming that are “not necessarily motivated by cost-cutting.”
In a letter to Justice Minister Yariv Levin, Deputy Attorney General Avital Sompolinsky argued against the bill, which she charged “severely damages the independence of the Public Broadcasting Corporation, whose proper and independent functioning is known to play a central role in Israeli democracy.”
“The proposal gives the government direct control over a major media outlet, and creates the infrastructure for direct political influence on the content that will be broadcast,” entailing a “serious violation of the constitutional rights to freedom of expression and freedom of the press,” she wrote.
According to Sompolinsky, together with other proposed measures, the bill would give the government an opportunity “to take control of the media and the media market, in a way that contradicts basic democratic values and does not suit the democratic nature of the country.”
The Ministerial Committee on Legislation’s decision to approve the bill came less than a week after it also gave the nod to a measure granting the government oversight of television ratings data.
The ratings bill, which passed a preliminary reading 53-49 in the Knesset plenum on Wednesday, would allow the communications minister to assume control of the currently independent organization that supplies publishers with this information.
It aims to establish “a framework” for measuring TV broadcast viewing figures and force the various broadcasters to report this data to the agency, including viewers’ age, gender and place of residence. It would also compel networks to display their peak-hour viewing figures.
Since taking office two years ago, Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi vowed to make shutting down or sidelining the IPBC his first move. The minister has said repeatedly that he wants to create greater competition in Israel’s media landscape and distribute public funds to a variety of outlets instead of just one.
Many members of Likud — including Karhi, Miri Regev, Tally Goltiv and Galit Distel Atbaryan — have made it clear that they want to control Israel’s public broadcasting and, if they can’t do so, see no reason to provide it with funding.
From the beginning, Karhi made it clear that he was gearing up to go to war with the IPBC, including issuing a letter in February 2023 accusing it of violating the law by presenting biased coverage of the government’s plans to overhaul the judiciary.
He then tried to block the IPBC from receiving advertising revenue and tried to pass its funding to direct state control. The Finance Ministry legal adviser swiftly objected to the plan, which Karhi tried to insert into the Arrangements Law accompanying the state budget.
The following month, Karhi announced a plan to both shutter the Second Authority for Television and Radio and lift the requirement to receive a license in order to broadcast news, moves which critics argue would benefit outlets like the pro-Netanyahu Channel 14.
Announcing his plan, Karhi stated that it was a “scandal” that public broadcasters control about half of Israel’s radio frequencies, and that he plans to move “in the near future” to strip radio frequencies from public broadcasters and open them to private ownership.
“I see how biased, one-sided, unbeatable, centralized, discriminatory and exclusionary the media market is in Israel,” Karhi stated.
This summer, journalists have protested the abrupt cancellation of a prominent investigative television show on Channel 13 and an executive shakeup that would put an associate of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in charge of the network’s news division.
And in April, the Knesset passed a controversial bill giving the government temporary powers to prevent foreign news networks from operating in Israel if they are deemed by the security services to be harming national security.
Amy Spiro and Carrie Keller-Lynn contributed to this report.
