IDI Responds to Deal Resolving Dispute over Public Broadcasting

Yohanan Plesner, President of the Israel Democracy Institute (IDI), and Dr. Tehilla Shwartz Altshuler, Director of IDI’s Media Reform Program said, “Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tried to bring public broadcasting down to its knees and succeeded. Dozens of senior journalists who left previous employers to work at the new Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation will lose their jobs, while the staff of the Israel Broadcasting Authority still don’t know their fate. Netanyahu trampled a reform that was conducted with hard work by his government, and in so doing, he harmed every governmental and democratic process. But more than anything else, Netanyahu delivered the message that he is the ‘real boss’ of those who work in public broadcasting and to other media outlets he made clear who they need to serve."

Plesner and Shwartz Altshuler called on members of Knesset, as public servants, as well as other watchdogs, to oppose the new framework.

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