{"id":24321,"date":"2017-05-19T03:53:15","date_gmt":"2017-05-19T10:53:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/?p=24321"},"modified":"2017-05-17T14:31:45","modified_gmt":"2017-05-17T21:31:45","slug":"unceremonious-end","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/2017\/05\/19\/unceremonious-end\/","title":{"rendered":"Unceremonious end"},"content":{"rendered":"

(photo by Andrew Shiva \/ Wikipedia)<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Israel\u2019s government shut down the country\u2019s public broadcaster last week, an act so contentious that it has the potential to bring down the government and spark fresh elections.<\/p>\n

The Israel Broadcasting Authority was widely viewed as a dysfunctional and wasteful structure that Israeli observers from across the spectrum agreed needed reform. But the manner in which the deed was done \u2013 which involved both blatantly political motives and insensitivity to long-time employees \u2013 has turned the situation into a potential political firestorm.<\/p>\n

The country\u2019s press council expressed fears that media freedom in Israel is \u201cat risk.\u201d The country\u2019s president, Reuven Rivlin, weighed in, saying, \u201cWithout public broadcasting, there is no democracy.\u2026 Without public broadcasting, the state of Israel isn\u2019t the state of Israel.\u201d<\/p>\n

The incident inspired beastly analogies from journalists, with one saying, \u201cThey not only killed us, but they gave us a donkey\u2019s funeral,\u201d and another commentator declaring: \u201cOne does not close an institution the way one drives a stray dog out of the house…. One does not give an ignominious burial to what used to be the leading light of Israeli broadcasting.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a blow to the most important part of democracy \u2013 the news,\u201d said Yitzhak Herzog, the opposition leader.<\/p>\n

From the government side, there was little effort to deny the evidence of political interference.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt can\u2019t be that we\u2019ll set up a broadcasting authority and not control it,\u201d said Miri Regev, the Likud culture minister.<\/p>\n

Neither does it appear to be an ad hoc effort to change the media dynamic in support of the Netanyahu government. Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu appointed himself communications minister and, in forming his coalition, he exacted from every party the promise to support whatever changes he introduced regarding the media.<\/p>\n

The fact is there is still a state broadcaster in Israel. A new entity was created to replace the IBA, and some of the IBA\u2019s staff \u2013 apparently somewhat less than half \u2013have been hired by the new national agency that will replace the defunct broadcaster. But many of Netanyahu\u2019s critics suspect the new channel is designed specifically to be more amenable to intervention from those with political power.<\/p>\n

The print media in Israel has also experienced a shakeup that raises questions of political interference. American billionaire Sheldon Adelson has invested millions to produce the free daily Israel Hayom<\/em>, which quickly rose to become the largest-circulation daily in the country, at least partly because it is free. Adelson is a strong supporter of Netanyahu, and the paper has been accused of being a mouthpiece for the Likud government.<\/p>\n

Netanyahu has a relationship with the media that bears some resemblance to that of Donald Trump, the U.S. president. He picks personal quarrels with reporters with whom he disagrees and even used the term \u201cfake news\u201d recently in referring to CNN and the New York Times<\/em>, echoing a familiar refrain from the head of the American government.<\/p>\n

It was not only the action of shutting the IBA that has caused outrage, but the crassness with which the whole thing was handled.<\/p>\n

The 49-year-old flagship TV news program was given one hour\u2019s notice before its final airing, leaving on-air personalities in tears as they said their goodbyes. The program \u2013 and the channel \u2013 was slated for closure May 14 and the show was planning a farewell episode for Sunday night with nostalgic and historical clips and reflections. The sudden decision to shut it down on May 10 was seen as an unnecessary indignity.<\/p>\n

Officials in the prime minister\u2019s office insisted Netanyahu did not know that the abrupt end was planned and agreed that is was disrespectful.<\/p>\n

Canada\u2019s public broadcaster has not been above political interference \u2013 successive governments have cut funding in what is one of the most destructive forms of interference \u2013 but there has been nothing to compare with what has happened to Israel\u2019s state broadcaster.<\/p>\n

Israel has a reputation for a disputatious and vibrant media and public discourse. It will not be felled by one government. But recent developments are not encouraging and their impacts will be closely watched to see what effects they have on politics and society in Israel. There are also, of course, independent private media outlets in the country and, we may see \u2013 in the way that the loss of one sense results in greater acuity in another \u2013 the private broadcasters rise to keep the government effectively in check.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(photo by Andrew Shiva \/ Wikipedia) Israel\u2019s government shut down the country\u2019s public broadcaster last week, an act so contentious that it has the potential to bring down the government and spark fresh elections. The Israel Broadcasting Authority was widely viewed as a dysfunctional and wasteful structure that Israeli observers from across the spectrum agreed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":24303,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[2873,4969,4330,2949,3597,7072],"class_list":["post-24321","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-from-the-ji","tag-free-speech","tag-iba","tag-israel","tag-netanyahu","tag-politics","tag-public-broadcasting"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24321","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24321"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24321\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24303"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24321"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24321"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24321"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}