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“What’s the Point of It If We Don’t Control It?” – Bill on Government Control Over IPBC Budget

>> Click here to read the full Position Paper

This position paper addresses the Israeli Public Broadcasting Law-2024 (Amendment: Budget of Israel Public Broadcasting Corporation) submitted by Likud MK Avichai Boaron. The amendment aims to change the existing mechanism for funding the IPBC that ensures its independence. Under the current law, the IPBC’s annual budget is guaranteed independently of the state budget, a measure designed to separate its operations from government funding and protect it from political influences. The proposed bill seeks to alter this arrangement, placing the government in charge of approving the IPBC’s budget as part of the state budget, thereby conferring upon it control over its funding and, by extension, its operations and content.

Zulat emphasizes that the proposal undermines the principles established in the original IPBC Law, which seek to prevent political interference in the IPBC’s operations and on public broadcasting. The bill effectively seeks to subordinate the IPBC to political considerations, which could compromise its independence and create financial dependence on government funding. The original law asserts that the IPBC should be independent in terms of content and budget, whereas this amendment would allow the government to modify and control the ins and outs of the annual budget, compromising the independence of public broadcasting and the primary objectives of the law.

The reasons cited for the bill include the major cuts undergone by the state budget due to the high cost of the Iron Swords War, as well as the principle that the IPBC’s budget should be part of the state budget. However, Zulat argues that cutting the IPBC’s budget as part of the cuts to the state budget runs counter to the IPBC Law and is intended to promote government control over public broadcasting, thus infringing on the fundamental rights of freedom of expression and freedom of the press.

In conclusion, Zulat warns that the enactment of this bill would severely undermine the independence of the IPBC, which is supposed to serve as an independent and impartial voice in our democracy. Making the IPBC’s budget dependent on government decisions could lead to government control over the content of broadcasts and damage Israel’s democratic fabric.

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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.