Unable to shut down Kan, coalition maneuvers to control public broadcaster’s budget |
A key procedural victory last week sets the stage for the government to take control of the Kan state broadcaster’s purse strings, seemingly advancing Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi’s two-year crusade to dismantle the station.
Karhi, who has sought to shut down or privatize the state-funded outlet as part of a larger campaign to liberalize the media market and increase competition, has previously failed to push ahead with his efforts against the broadcaster due to opposition from Likud MK David Bitan, the head of the Knesset Economics Committee, which had been slated to consider a bill allowing the government to determine Kan’s budget.
Last week, the Knesset House Committee voted to transfer the bill from Bitan’s panel to the Finance Committee, led by Likud MK Hanoch Milwidsky, a close ally of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is more likely to advance it.
Currently, Kan’s funding is guaranteed by Israel’s Public Broadcasting Act, with strict provisions intended to preserve barriers between the broadcaster and political authorities, including keeping the government from being able to unilaterally alter or reduce the broadcaster’s funding.
The proposed legislation would end that independence and give ministers the authority to set and potentially cut the budget of the station, which regularly features reporting critical of those in power.
Supporters of the bill argue that, as a public broadcaster funded by the taxpayer, the government should have the right to set Kan’s budget, and that this will increase transparency.
“It’s time for the public’s money – approximately NIS 1 billion ($300,000) – invested in the corporation, to be supervised by the public and its representatives,” said Likud MK Avichay Buaron, who sponsored the bill.
Karhi said on X that the bill would take control from “bureaucrats and legal advisers” and return it to elected officials. He vowed to continue to “dismantle the deep state” until “we return our Jewish and democratic state to the people.”
Opponents of the move, including Kan itself, warn that allowing the government to set the broadcaster’s budget would open the door to political interference and violate the safeguards built into the law.
Tehilla Shwartz Altshuler, a senior fellow at the........