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How Will We Save Free Media? Webinar in Collaboration with “Mechazkim”

On January 7, 2025, Zulat and “Mechazkim” marked the new year with a webinar on the topic: “How Will We Save Free Media?” The webinar was moderated by Mechazkim CEO Eran Nissan and featured journalist Assaf Lieberman and Zulat CEO Einat Ovadia.

Assaf Lieberman addressed the proposal to privatize the Public Broadcasting Corporation: “In my opinion, Minister (of communication) Karhi doesn’t even know the Corporation’s content. MK Tali Gottlieb stood in the plenum and yelled and mocked ‘Bli Sodot’, which has not been on air for years. I would expect a Knesset member who submits a proposal to close the Corporation to at least know what’s aired there. I don’t think Karhi knows what’s broadcast on public radio or television either – and therefore I don’t think it is diversity that really bothers him. I don’t dismiss the claim of lack of balance in the programs. The Public Corporation should be a home for left, right, coalition supporters and opponents, all communities and all colours – and I want Karhi to feel comfortable when he listens to the Corporation programs. Had he listened, he would have heard fair interviews with coalition members. The minister has tools to deal with issues that bother him without resorting to shutting down the channel. That’s his duty, so he should do his job.”

Einat Ovadia spoke about the High Court petition filed by Zulat regarding the Corporation’s selection committee: “Minister Karhi chose not to extend the tenure of two board members despite the High Court ruling, after Judge Drori resigned following a High Court petition we filed. Karhi issued a very harsh statement announcing he doesn’t intend to implement the High Court ruling. This statement also revealed that his goal is to commercialize the Corporation.

Public broadcasting has enormous importance. The Media Takeover is part of the Constitutional Coup, a move to crush all institutions that criticize the government. The media is the ‘fourth estate,’ which should scrutinize elected officials. A democratic state cannot exist without its citizens having access to information and truth. Minister Karhi is Prime Minister is a proxy of Netanyahu, who, more than a decade ago, made it his mission to control the media and make it less ‘adversarial.’ Public broadcasting cannot be privatized. The goal is to drown the public in a flood of propaganda. It’s already affecting us. But it will affect future generations even more. Our children won’t know any other media – only propaganda media. They won’t have the ability to develop critical thinking.”

Watch the webinar (Hebrew, no subtitles):

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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.