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Bill to Shut Down Kan Corporation’s News Broadcasts: Another Effort to Harm Public Broadcasting and Free Media

>> Click here to read the full Position Paper

This bill introduced by the government is another link in a long chain of legislative proposals aimed at dismantling public broadcasting and harming the free media in Israel in the framework of the regime revolution. Among other things, it seeks to shut down the news broadcasts of the Israel Public Broadcasting Corporation (IPBC), significantly cut its budget, and subject it to political control.

To this end, the bill proposes the following measures:

  • Terminate the IPBC’s news broadcasts in Hebrew, both on television and on radio.
  • Turn the IPBC Council into a politically affiliated body, whose members would be directly appointed by the government.
  • Cut the IPBC’s budget from the current NIS700 million to NIS500 million, banning it from airing commercials and sponsored ads, and limiting the amount of the fee collected for use of its archive content. This would result in a in budget cut in excess of NIS300 million (far more than the operating cost of news broadcasts at NIS160 million), which would affect the IPBC’s operations and independence.
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Supreme Court rulings have repeatedly asserted that independent public broadcasting, free from political interference and providing news and current affairs programming, is essential for safeguarding freedom of expression and freedom of the press, as well as for preserving the democratic character of the State of Israel. The proposed bill, which seeks to terminate public news broadcasts and allow the politicization of IPBC Council, would deal a dramatic blow to the constitutional fundamental rights to freedom of expression and freedom of the press, and significantly harm Israel’s democratic fabric. These infringements, which would be carried out for the improper purpose of controlling the broadcasting entity and interfering with its content, do not meet the tests of proportionality established in case law.

Therefore, Zulat firmly opposes the proposed legislation and calls on the government and legislature to act toward protecting freedom of the press and freedom of expression.

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Dr. Maha Sabbah Karkabi

 

Senior Lecturer in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. She holds a Ph.D. in Sociology from Tel Aviv University (2015), a postdoctoral fellowship at the Center for Gender Studies, SOAS, University of London (2015-2016), a postdoctoral fellowship in the Department of Sociology at Tel Aviv University (2016-2017), and a postdoctoral fellowship Ph.D. at the Humphrey Institute for Social Research, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (2018-2020).
Dr. Maha Karbahi’s areas of interest focus on the connection between social change, family behavior, and gender inequality in societies in the process of change and specifically in Palestinian Arab society in Israel. Her research draws attention to the study of family life and employment, using a combined “ethnic lens” and “gender lens” and paying attention to the perspective of Palestinian Arab women, a group characterized by intersections between multiple marginal locations, which over the years has remained hidden from the research eye. Dr. Karkabi-Sabah’s research is published in professional journals and chapters in scientific books that are considered pioneers in family research, work, and gender equality.

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Prof. Frances Raday

Professor Emeritus in the Lieberman Chair in Labor Law, in the Faculty of Law at the Hebrew University and serves as a full professor in the College of Management’s academic track, where she also serves as chair of the graduate program and as honorary president of the Concord Center for International Law Absorption. Radai was a member of a working group of the UN Human Rights Council on discrimination against women. In addition, she is a prominent and feminist human rights activist.

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Dr. Rawia Aburabia 

Faculty member of Sapir Academic College’s School of Law, received her PhD from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Her research deals with the interface between law, gender, minorities, and human rights. Has published in leading journals on the subject of the matrimonial laws pertaining to Muslim women in Israel. Her book Under the Law, Outside Justice: Polygamy, Gendered Citizenship, and Colonialism in Israeli Law is expected to be published as part of the Gender Series of Kibbutz Meuhad Publishing House.

Dr. Aburabia has extensive experience in international human rights and public law. She has worked as a jurist for the Association for Civil Right and has been invited as a specialist to address such international forums as the United Nations and the European Parliament on the subject of indigenous communities and minority rights. She has interned with Human Rights Watch in Washington DC, and has been a member of the executive board of Amnesty International. In 2018, she was selected by the magazine Globes as one of the 40 most promising young persons in Israel under the age of 40.

 

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Ron Kessler

With over two decades of experience in the field of digital content, Ron has participated in numerous political and social campaigns. He helped run the digital activity of senior public officials, and worked in various NGOs. Ron is a fundamentally optimistic man, who believes that Israel can be changed and so can people. Lives in Tel Aviv.