Communications Minister Shlomo Karai of the Likud has been trying to harm the broadcasting corporation since he took office at the beginning of the year. After declaring various plans, only to withdraw from them in shame, Karai converged on a specific plan, which may have been the one he aimed for in the first place: harming the corporation’s radio stations in favor of the commercial radio stations.
Minister Karai asked to prohibit the broadcasting corporation from broadcasting advertisements on the radio (which make up about ten percent of its revenues), and to close three public radio stations. Karai asked for the frequencies to be transferred to commercial radio, which is currently only regional radio. The prohibition on the corporation to broadcast commercials will of course divert large advertising funds to those stations. The direct beneficiaries of the Likud leader’s legislation will be businessmen David Ben Best and Zvika Shalom.
Ben Best is the owner of Radio Radius and Radio Lev Hamida and a former member of the Likud Center (an interesting trivia detail: in the past he was the partner of Shaul Elovitch, the star of the Netanyahu bribery case, in the ownership of Radio Radius). Ben Best’s program, “The Chosen Ones”, is also broadcast on Channel 14. Shalom is the owner of the Gali-Israel radio station, a current affairs station that regularly discusses Netanyahu and even employs his son, Yair, as a broadcaster. Shalom, the brother of former Likud minister Sylvan Shalom, is also one of the owners of Radio Tel Aviv and Radio Darom.
Instead of going through the high road of primary legislation, Karai sought to bypass the need for proper staff work, public hearings and all that entails, and make his plan a fait accompli. As soon as he managed, after a month and a half, to put his intentions in writing and forward them to the Treasury, he was met with a resolute and unequivocal response: the plan “to increase competition” is unprofessional, submitted late, burdens the state budget with hundreds of millions of shekels and its entire purpose is to harm the independence of public broadcasting.
Karai, for his part, provided an amazing response: he admitted fully that this was indeed his intention, to harm the freedom of the press and enslave the broadcasting corporation to the whims of the government. He described Finance Minister Smotrich as a rag who succumbed to the “subversion of officials”. It is not clear if Smotrich came to his senses and realized that Krai was entangling him in a plan that was illogical at best and suspected of being criminal at worst; Or the plan did not enter the Settlements Law just because of the shortness of time, either way, Karai received it in the form of 60 million shekels from the taxpayers’ money “for the program to encourage diversity and competition in news and current affairs”. Time will tell to whom Krei will distribute the money.
like a thief in the night
Earlier today, the Broadcasting Corporation’s Workers’ Council responded to the news that Karai is trying at the last minute to thread his offensive legislation into the Settlements Law: “In the midst of preparations for Shabbat, hundreds of families of the corporation’s employees were informed that the sword of layoffs was once again raised over their necks. Minister Karai did not cease from his evil, obsessive and illogical schemes To harm the Public Broadcasting Corporation – a successful, ground-breaking, innovative, diverse and very much loved body by the general public.
Even earlier, the journalists’ organization, through which the corporation’s employees are also unionized, commented on Karai’s plan: “The dangerous move will harm an entire industry of creators and performers. The corporation pays tens of millions of shekels every year in royalties to creators and performers. For some veteran creators in Israel, these royalties prevent them from reaching Fatah Lehm. Private bodies that will be established will not be able to meet the payment of millions of shekels per year in royalties and will give up the broadcasting of unique voices.
“The sole purpose of the move in question is to transfer assets that are in public use to the benefit of private entities, some of which already today control large parts of the communications market. Chairman of the Economy Committee, MK David Bitan has already indicated the direction required for a solution – the Ministry of Communications should open 3 national frequencies new for the benefit of privately owned national radio, and it must not come at the expense of the corporation’s radio stations.”
“We call on the government and its members to stop Minister Karai’s mischievous attempt to push the violation of the Corporation to the Law of Arrangements, like a thief in the night,” continued the message of the Broadcasting Corporation’s Workers’ Committee, “We are preparing for emergency operations throughout the next week. We will take every possible step to prevent the destruction of public broadcasting “. Even if the fight against Karai’s intention to bypass the normal legislative procedure has become redundant, he is still determined to harm public broadcasting (among other things), and there is no doubt that the journalists’ organization, the creators’ organizations, and everyone who is anxious for the existence of public broadcasting and free media in Israel, still expect many struggles against Karai .