A bill proposal supported by Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi to privatize Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation (IPBC) was green-lighted by the government on Sunday, despite “serious concerns” by the Attorney-General’s Office that the bill’s real purpose was to shut down a media outlet that is critical of the government and create a “chilling effect” on other media outlets.
Chaired by Justice Minister Yariv Levin, the Ministerial Committee on Legislation sets the government’s positions on legislative proposals and decides which to support once they reach the Knesset. The AG’s office expressed its concerns in a letter to Levin on Sunday morning, a few hours before the ministers green-lighted it.
The aim of the bill is to privatize Israel’s Public Broadcasting Corporation, also known as KAN, by ending its public funding and transferring responsibility for operating its television and radio broadcasts to private owners within two years of the law being passed.
The bill stipulates that the corporation’s executive council will first have to present to the communications minister, the finance minister, and the governmental regulator of commercial broadcasting (the Second Authority for Television and Radio) a list of the corporation’s assets.
Stipulation of the bill
Under the bill, within a year of receiving the list, the Second Authority for Television and Radio will publish a tender to select a licensee for television broadcasts. Six months after that, the Second Authority for Television and Radio will announce its decision on the winner of the tender. If no winner is chosen, “the Public Broadcasting Corporation will cease to broadcast and will cease all activity connected to broadcasting within two years of this law coming into effect.”
The attorney-general's office countered in its letter, written by Deputy Attorneys-General Avital Sompolinsky and Meir Levin, that even before getting into the issue of public broadcasting itself, the proposal included severe procedural deficiencies. First and foremost, the bill was brought forward “hastily” without sufficient professional analysis and staff work. The bill would create a “major shift” in Israel’s media landscape, and therefore, such professional staff work was critical, Sompolinsky and Levin wrote. It pointed out that past government decisions regarding public broadcasting were based on professional committees whose work lasted for months.In addition, the bill proposal came in the form of a private bill sponsored by Likud MK Tally Gotliv. A bill of this magnitude should only be proposed as a government bill, the AG’s office wrote. Private bills were “not intended to be used as a tool in the hands of a minister to circumvent the professionals in his office or other government officials,” Sompolinsky and Levin wrote.The bill proposal “joins a series of proposals being advanced at this time that threaten the corporation’s [KAN’S] independence and ability to fulfill its public roles,” the deputy AGs added.While they did not detail what other proposals they were referring to, one of them was likely another recent private bill proposal, this time by Likud MK Avichai Boaron, to subject the IPBC’s funding to the state budget so that it could be cut in line with general cuts to public spending during the war. Another recent bill proposal was for the government to take over the television rating measurement mechanism.Sompolinsky and Levin continued, “In light of these circumstances, there is a serious concern that the proposal is also motivated by the desire to stop the corporation’s broadcasts due to the content it airs. Even if the various steps do not come to fruition, each one on its own, and certainly when accumulated, creates a significant and severe chilling effect on the corporation and other media bodies in Israel.”“The message from these actions is clear and serious: criticism of the government or broadcasting content that does not favor the government may lead to measures against media bodies and their restriction. This consideration also carries significant weight in the legal examination, and the concern is heightened by the manner in which the proposal is being promoted—not within the framework of governmental work, without proper groundwork, and ignoring the professional work of committees that have deliberated on the matter,” they wrote.“For all the reasons above, with the consent of the Attorney General, our position is that the proposed law cannot be advanced due to the most fundamental procedural flaws inherent in it. Therefore, it cannot be determined at this time that the proposed law meets the required legal standards,” Sompolinsky and Levin concluded.The Movement for Quality Government in Israel said in a statement following the bill proposal’s approval in the ministerial committee, “This is another step in an orchestrated and planned campaign to weaken Israeli democracy and severely damage the freedom of the press. We will use all the legal means at our disposal to prevent this unconstitutional move, and remind you that as the Supreme Court stated – ‘once public broadcasting is established – it cannot be canceled.’ The hasty move to close the corporation, combined with the attempt to control its budget and subjugate it to the political echelon, reveals the true intention – a political takeover of the independent media in Israel. We will not let it happen.”
NEVO TRABELSY/Globes/TNS contributed to this article