Zulat and Liora Nir of the Fair Regulation Movement petitioned the Supreme Court against the Second Authority for Television and Radio (SATR) and Channel 14 (the full text of the petition is available in Hebrew only).
The petitioners, who are represented by Attorney Yossi Abadi of the Meitar law firm, demand from the SATR to impose financial sanctions on Channel 14 for consistently airing fake news and inflammatory statements, as well as for lack of objectivity, balance, and advertising content. All these constitute blatant and serial violations of the law and of their broadcasting license.
We also demand to know why the license issued to Channel 14, which is a news channel, fails to include all the SATR’s supervisory and enforcement powers listed in the licenses issued to the news companies of other channels, such as the authority to deduct airtime due to violations, take corrective actions against inadequacies, impose sanctions due to violations of the ban on airing prohibited content, issue new requirements and rules to the license holder, oblige the license holder to join the Israel Press Council or alternatively set up an independent three-member ethics committee headed by a retired judge, and to restrict advertising in news programs.
The Fair Regulation Movement monitored Channel 14 broadcasts for seven months and found an unusual number of license violations, for which 55 complaints were filed to the SATR and its ombudsman, who failed to impose any sanctions on the channel.