The Knesset's Economic Committee is currently discussing several proposed laws against the Public Broadcasting Corporation. Proposals include shutting it down, limiting its activities, or transferring control of it to political bodies. All of this is in order to prevent it from criticizing the government. One of the proposed laws seeks to require the Public Broadcasting Corporation to submit its annual financial reports and activity reports to the Knesset's Economic Committee, which would hold discussions about them in the presence of the Broadcasting Corporation Council Chairman and its CEO. In anticipation of these discussions, we sent legal letters to the Committee to oppose the proposed law.
In the petition, Attorney Hagar Shechter argued that the proposed law is flawed and will lead to a major infringement on freedom of expression and freedom of the press. According to the explanatory notes to the proposed law, its purpose is to increase the Knesset's regulatory oversight of the Public Broadcasting Corporation, but in practice it lays the groundwork for political involvement in the Public Broadcasting Corporation's work and content, and for intimidating its employees and managers.
Attorney Shechter emphasized that the Public Broadcasting Law already includes elements designed to increase transparency, ensure responsibility and accountability, and prevent misuse of public funds. The law also created an independent supervision procedure for the Public Broadcasting Corporation, designed to ensure that public broadcasting would not be subject to political pressures. The existence of these procedures is so that there could be no question that the media serves the public and not the government, and in order to protect freedom of the press and freedom of expression. Consequently, ACRI’s appeal stated that "It is evident that the only reason for holding a discussion about the Public Broadcasting Corporation's activities in the Knesset is to supervise the content broadcast and funded by the Public Broadcasting Corporation. Such supervision will result in lethal and unreasonable damage to freedom of expression and the press. Its very existence sends a message that criticism of government authorities is unwelcome, and it could lead to a chilling effect. This is, therefore, an arrangement that is foreign to democratic regimes and has no place in Israeli law."
ACRI’s petition, December 2, 2024 (Heb)
