Bill to privatize Israel’s public broadcaster passes preliminary vote

The coalition on Wednesday passed a preliminary vote over a controversial bill to privatize the Public Broadcasting Corporation, which goes by the brand name KAN.

MKs will now begin preparing the bill for its first reading in one of the Knesset’s committees.

The proposal is to end KAN’s public funding and to transfer responsibility for operating its television and radio broadcasts to private owners within two years of the law being passed.

The bill was proposed by MK Tally Gotliv with the backing of Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi, both from Likud.

According to the bill’s preamble, “The Public Broadcasting Corporation’s budget comprises two sources: a government budget fixed by law and linked to the Consumer Price Index; and a budget based on collecting a vehicle radio fee. This budget amounts to NIS 800 million. This is a very high sum, and even those who believe in the importance of public broadcasting are taken aback by its size.”

In an age of multi-channel television and widely accessible Internet, “the claim that public broadcasting is needed to provide a response to the multiculturalism that exists in Israel is no longer relevant,” the bill’s authors added.

Karhi defends bill

However, the Attorney-General’s Office expressed on Sunday “serious concerns” 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.According to the A-G, the bill “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 A-G’s Office also pointed out procedural flaws, arguing that the bill was brought by a private MK rather than by the government to avoid proper legal oversight. 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,” the office wrote.

Karhi said during Wednesday’s Knesset debate, “For six years, I have been submitting the same law based on a liberal economic worldview, that in an era of a free market, there is no need for the public to fund public broadcasting. There are enough news channels in the private market, all of which have higher ratings than public broadcasting. Why should we fund a product that exists in the market with hundreds of millions?”

Opposition leader Yesh Atid MK Yair Lapid countered, “This is an attack on Israeli democracy, on Israeli freedom of expression, and on Israeli creativity, under the guise of addressing the corporation’s issues. There is no state without freedom of expression. It is impossible to manage it without freedom of creation. They decided to do what dark regimes do – first crush the free media and then go on to deal with everything else.”

The bill stipulates that KAN’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.

Under the bill, within a year of receiving the list, the Second Authority will publish a tender to select a licensee for television broadcasts. Six months after that, the authority 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.”

As far as radio is concerned, under the bill, all of KAN’s radio broadcasts will cease within two years of the bill becoming law, apart from the broadcasts of the Reshet Bet station (mainly news and current affairs).

Within a year of receiving the list of assets, the Second Authority will publish a tender for a national radio broadcasting licensee for that radio station. The bill states that the licensee will be allowed to broadcast advertising, sponsorships, and public service announcements.

The bill came amid a number of other government measures that critics have argued will negatively affect press freedom.

These include a recent bill proposal to subject the Public Broadcasting Corporation’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 for the government to take over the television rating measurement mechanism; a decision on Sunday that the government will cease advertising in the Haaretz newspaper; and other measures.

Notably, United Right supported the bill. The party, which recently joined the coalition, has in the past opposed controversial measures that some argued contributed to democratic backsliding.