After the Yesh Atid party and its leader, Prime Minister Yair Lapid, submitted a petition to the Election Commission, the purpose of which is to declare the “Now 14” channel as an active body in the elections, and as a result – the complete closure of the channel if Judge Yitzhak Amit does adopt their position, a request was made to include Yair Lapid as a respondent in the petition
Channel 14 asked the election committee to include Lapid: “The petition is a calculated and planned move to close Channel 14 on television. Under the guise of an innocent petition that only asks for ‘transparency’ and ‘correct content classification’, the real purpose is hidden – silencing a media outlet that criticizes the actions of the government and the Prime Minister”.
to sign the petition, click here.
The networks view the undemocratic petition of a sitting prime minister, the one who, among other things, is supposed to protect free media in Israel, with great severity. Instead, as mentioned, Lapid and his party are working to close the channel and thus lead with their own hands to the silencing of a huge public. To fight this silencing attempt, tens of thousands of people have already joined the petition against the ridiculous petition.
The Israel Hayom group and Makor Rishon this morning published a letter of support for Channel 14, after the Yesh Atid party filed an appeal against it with a request to mark its broadcasts as election propaganda. The “Israel Hayom” group and the “Israel Hayom” and “Mekor Rishon” newspaper systems condemn any attempt or move to silence, limit, threaten and restrict the actions of media outlets and journalists, including the “Now 14” television channel, the official statement of the two bodies reads .
The media continued and wrote: “We support pluralism and cultural and media pluralism – routinely and during elections.” In fact, Yesh Atid’s step received many criticisms from all sides of the political and media spectrum. The publisher of the “Globes” newspaper, Alona Bar On, also came out against the petition and supported Channel 14, where her husband Shimon Riklin also works, one of the prominent voices heard against Yesh Atid’s and interim Prime Minister Yair Lapid’s appeal to the Election Commission to declare it a propaganda channel, what which will lead to its closure.