Israel: RSF condemns the attacks on media independence by the government of Benyamin Netanyahu

For several weeks now, Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi has been accelerating his agenda for reforming Israel's media laws as the war in Gaza and Lebanon intensifies.

The "Al-Jazeera law", as it has been dubbed by the Israeli press, has just been tightened. This exceptional measure was adopted in April 2024 for a four-month period and renewed in July. On 20 November, Israeli MPs voted to extend the law's duration to six months, and increase the law's main provision - a broadcasting ban on any foreign media outlet deemed detrimental to national security by the security services - from 45 days to 60.

On 3 November, the Ministerial Committee for Legislation - the body charged with validating bills proposed by members of the Knesset, Israel's parliament - approved a law expanding the communications minister's control over the media. Currently, if the Ministry of Communication wants to modify the budget of the public broadcaster Kan, which is financed through various sources of public funding and advertising revenue, it must submit legislation through parliament. The new law, however, will allow the ministry to change Kan's budget directly.

On 28 October, the same committee green-lit changes to the way the analytics of television audiences are tracked. According to the text, the Ministry of Communications would take over the responsibility of tracking these audiences from a private accredited body similar to Médiamétrie in France, Nielsen in the US and GfK in Germany.

Critical media outlets labeled as propaganda

Minister Shlomo Karhi has never hidden his disdain for public service media. He has referred to his critics in the Knesset as "terrorists" and accused the editorial staff of the liberal newspaper Haaretzof engaging in "anti-Israeli propaganda." In March 2023, he unveiled a vast plan to restructure the media landscape just three months after his appointment to Benyamin Netanyahu's cabinet in December 2022. The series of laws currently being debated stem from this plan, which is being adopted in stages.

Key parts of this strategy include weakening Kanand reinforcing certain private channels, such as Channel 14, which strongly supports the current ruling coalition. In August 2024, Channel 14was added to the list of channels broadcast on terrestrial television, an initiative of the Likud party and Minister Shlomo Karhi. The private channel does not pay for its own licensing fees; they are covered by Kan.

Another bill approved by the Ministerial Committee for Legislation on 30 June would allow radio frequencies to be allocated by the communications minister, who ultimately aims to dismantle the independent body currently responsible for this task, known as Second Authority.

Even before the "Al-Jazeera" law was extended in April 2024, the Minister had banned the Lebanese television channel Al-Mayadeen, which takes a pro-Hezbollah and pro-Iran editorial stance, from broadcasting in Israel in November 2023.

Inside Israel, journalists critical of the government and the war have been facing pressure and intimidationfor over a year. In Gaza, the occupied West Bank and Lebanon, journalists continue to be targeted by the Israeli army. Since 7 October 2023, the Israeli military has killed over 140 journalists in the besieged Palestinian enclave, andat least 34of them slain in the course of their work, according to RSF's information.