‘Scared for freedom of speech’: Journalists accuse government of muzzling press
Lapid accuses PM of trying ‘to stifle criticism of the government,’ whereupon communications minister’s chief of staff screams ‘shame’ and is ejected from meeting
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"
Journalists and opposition lawmakers sparred with Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi over the government’s efforts to overhaul the media market on Wednesday, accusing him and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of working to create a compliant press like that of Vladimir Putin’s Russia.
“We feel that the free media is under a very sharp attack,” Channel 12 news anchor Oded Ben-Ami told lawmakers during an “emergency” conference on freedom of expression.
Comparing a country without a free press to a hospital whose doctors do not have access to basic medical equipment, he said, “We are the stethoscope of a democratic state and if you harm us, this state… won’t be able to exist.”
“Where journalists are flagged for their political positions, arrests will follow,” weighed in Yedioth Ahronoth journalist Merav Betito, referring to a list circulated by Likud activists in recent days that scored Kan public broadcaster journalists on the basis of their political opinions.
The gathering was organized by Opposition Leader Yair Lapid, himself a former journalist, to protest a series of moves that critics say are aimed at eroding press freedoms, including recent legislative initiatives to grant the government oversight over television ratings data and privatize the Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation and Army Radio.
Critics, including the Foreign Press Association and the Union of Journalists in Israel, have accused the government of undermining democracy, while the bills’ backers argue that their legislation would liberalize the media market and increase competition.
Michal Assulin, Kan’s music editor, told the gathering that this is not the first time that the government has taken aim at the public broadcaster, recalling the closure of its predecessor, the Israel Broadcasting Authority, in 2017.
“I’m scared for freedom of speech,” she said. “Please don’t take my home.”
“It must be said, this government and its leader have an obsession with media matters. Cases 2000 and 4000 deal with this very thing,” Sami Peretz of financial daily The Marker told the committee, referring to two of the corruption cases in which the prime minister is standing trial.
Case 2000 concerns allegations Netanyahu tried to obtain positive media coverage from the Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper in exchange for curtailing a competitor.
Case 4000, also known as the Bezeq-Walla case and the most serious the prime minister faces, focuses on allegations that Netanyahu authorized regulatory decisions that financially benefited Bezeq telecommunications giant shareholder Shaul Elovitch by hundreds of millions of shekels. In return, Netanyahu allegedly received favorable media coverage from the Walla news site, which Elovitch also owned.
‘Restrained, frightened, submissive, shallow’
Opening the gathering, Lapid launched into a withering denunciation of the government, accusing Netanyahu of carrying out “a planned, orchestrated attack” against the Israeli press.
Israel has fallen 15 spots in Reporters Without Borders’ annual press freedom index since the government took power in 2022 but “that’s not enough for this government. It wants us to drop further,” Lapid said, citing the government’s recent legislative initiatives.
In addition, “they tried to appoint a director-general at Channel 13 who would work for them… and the government voted unanimously to cancel all its advertising in Haaretz,” the Yesh Atid chairman continued.
The cabinet last week called on all government ministries and agencies to boycott the left-leaning Haaretz after its publisher Amos Schocken referred to Palestinian terrorists as “freedom fighters,” comments he later partially walked back.
“If they can end government advertising in Haaretz because of political statements, do you really think they can’t halt advertising on Channel 12? If they can legislate against the public broadcaster, they can’t legislate against Channel 13? Is there anything in the behavior of this government that makes you believe they’ll stop? That they have red lines?” Lapid asked.
Netanyahu’s government does not “want balance, it wants media like in Hungary, like in Russia – restrained, frightened, submissive, shallow,” he asserted, warning that “if this current legislation passes without a fight, there will be an even more dangerous wave of legislation.”
“They’re just waiting to see how we respond. They’ll only stop if they’re met with fierce resistance. If we don’t stop it now, together – it won’t stop. If we don’t fight back now, there won’t be a chance to fight back. Whoever is silent now, they will be next,” he said.
Harsh recriminations
Entering the conference in the middle, Communications Minister Karhi pushed back against allegations that he was working to curb the press, declaring that he “works for the public and not for the media.”
Most Israelis want “a diversity of opinions” in the media but members of the press are against changing the communications market status quo because they have divided up the pie among themselves and do not want additional competition, he said.
Arguing that the moves being promoted by the government would open the radio market to competition by abolishing regional restrictions, Karhi insisted that, despite his critics’ claims, when the government’s legislation is passed into law, “freedom of expression will increase.”
“Nobody around the table believes you,” Lapid shot back, telling Karhi that he had “received an order from above to stifle criticism of the government.”
Karhi was interrupted repeatedly by reporters and lawmakers during his remarks, with Yedioth Ahronoth’s Betito accusing him of labeling journalists as left-wing and right-wing.
Infuriated by the interruptions, Karhi’s chief of staff Elad Zamir erupted in anger and was removed from the chamber after shouting that Lapid was trying to “silence our voices.”
“Shame on you,” he yelled at Lapid.
Following Zamir’s outburst, Yesh Atid MK Simon Davidson filed an official complaint with the Knesset Ethics Committee alleging that his behavior was “intolerable and constitutes a serious violation of the democratic process and the proper functioning of the Knesset.”
In response, Karhi’s chief of staff accused Lapid of not respecting democracy and freedom of expression. Still, Zamir also acknowledged that this did not make his behavior appropriate, and apologized.
