Media

The Oscar award-winning “Spotlight” captures the mix of frustration, joy, drudgery and thrill that goes into every great investigative story, reminding viewers of the power of investigative journalism to reveal the abuse of power in the public and private sectors. Could the Pulitzer-prize winning work of the Boston Globe be replicated today?

While in Israel there is no formal constitution, freedom of expression is inherent in our Basic Laws. Yet a recent episode between the Israeli government and the foreign press placed Israel in a problematic light and was neither democratic nor right.

Tehilla Shwartz Altshuler reminds us that the media is the cement that holds the stones of democracy together. As the arbiter of reality, the purpose of the media is to show us, the citizens, what is going on around us. To the same extent, it is also supposed to reflect our feelings and our level of trust in the decision-makers and representatives whom we elect to govern us.

On Wednesday, May 27, 2015, IDI Research Fellow Dr. Tehilla Shwartz Altshuler, head of Media Reform and Open Government Projects, chaired a session entitled “The New Journalism: How Digital Media Changed the Rules” at an international conference in Jerusalem. On this page, the session can be viewed in its entirety.

In a fiery op-ed, Dr. Tehilla Shwartz Altshuler responds to charges of bias and lays out IDI's pro-active agenda in favor of media diversity and transparency and its efforts to save the <em>Makor Rishon</em>  newspaper. 

In this article from The Seventh Eye, two journalists from  Globes explain discuss a new phenomenon: many journalists have abandoned reporting legwork and let their fingers do the walking, reproducing, sometime verbatim, anonymous content circulating on the web.

What is the state of freedom of information in Israel? Like in the US, there is good and bad news.

Last year the Democracy Index pointed to an all-time low in public trust in the media. However, in 2017 it seems that the trend has reversed. Why?

The Cambridge Analytica scandal raises troubling questions about the colossal amount of personal data now available online. Dr. Tehilla Shwartz Altshuler says that states must take more aggressive action to protect individual privacy and prevent private entities from hijacking elections.

When we use social networks, search engines or other online services on our computers or smartphones, we leave behind a long digital trail. The Facebook and Cambridge Analytica scandal should serve as a wake-up call to us all as to the implications.

Especially now, it is important to remember: There is no watchdog that is more important, that barks louder or is more effective at safeguarding Israeli democracy.

"Weak media leads to fake news"

David Zeev (Reshet Bet) talks to Dr. Tehilla Shwartz Altshuler, 

The panel: Is it Trump, Zuckerberg or US - Whose Fault is Fake News? was held at the Globes-Israel Business Conference in Jerusalem on January 11, 2018.

Trust in Israeli media is on the rise, and that's a valuable lifeline to those whose job it is to keep the public informed.

Ministers say the current law, which separates public broadcasting from politics, is good and sound.

In preparation for the Knesset vote on Tuesday on the fate of the Israel Broadcasting Corporation (IBC), leaders at the Israel Democracy Institute (IDI) are calling on ministers to vote against the memorandum so as not to participate “in this campaign of revenge and inappropriate personal legislation.”

Ahead of the expected debate on the amendment to the public broadcasting law that is expected to take place on Sunday, IDI scholars resent a policy statement to legislators calling on them to stop this “unprofessional and shameful” legislative process and to enable the Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation to go on air.

Dr. Tehilla Shwartz Altshuler says rejoicing over the death of television and the birth of “intervision” is premature. This column was originally published by Times of Israel.

Dr. Tehilla Shwartz Altshuler argues that the main reason the coup in Turkey fizzled is not because of Erdogan’s FaceTime message, but because he had been anticipating this putsch for quite a few years and had arranged the entire legal apparatus that governs the relationship between the Turkish government and the media accordingly. 

When a sizable portion of our decision-makers have that difficulty, and “digital illiteracy” becomes evident in the upper echelons where decisions are made, we’ve got a problem. This article was first published by The Jerusalem Post.

How long will we continue to recite the mantra that “technology cannot be stopped?” To what extent will we take a stand and cease to permit bad social engineering? This article was originally published by The Jerusalem Post.

Yesh Atid, Zionist Camp and Meretz have the strongest online presence, while the Joint List and Yisrael Beiteinu lag behind.

In 2016, Israelis’ trust in the mass media reached an all-time low. But the decline seems to have bottomed out then; the increase in trust registered in 2017 has continued this year and reached 31%. This is still low as compared to many other institutions, but is all the same an improvement.

Hanoch Marmari, former editor of Haaretz and current editor of The Seventh Eye, an independent on-line journal dedicated to critique of the media, defends <em>Israel Hayom</em>'s right to exist as a free newspaper, notwithstanding his professional qualms about the quality of its journalism.

A summary of a legal opinion opposing the "Law for the Advancement and Protection of Print Journalism in Israel," which would prohibit the distribution of a full-sized daily newspaper in Israel free of charge.

Who is addressing the problematic relationship between local and national government in Israel? Is anyone designing a a comprehensive reform program to solve some of the issues that are the result of a malfunctioning system of local governance? How, if at all, does the national media deal with this issue?

IDI Researcher Dr. Tehilla Shwartz Altshuler analyzes a Supreme Court ruling that recalled a book and struck a balance between the right to privacy and the right to freedom of expression, and discusses larger questions of privacy in the digital age.

As Israel prays for the safe return of Gilad Shaar, Naftali Fraenkel, and Eyal Yifrach, Dr. Tehilla Shwartz Altshuler, head of IDI's Media Reform project, shares thoughts on the use of gag orders and military censorship in the digital age.

In an article in <em>Makor Rishon</em>, Prof. Yedidia Stern describes his feelings of sadness, pride, apprehension, and hope upon the sentencing of Ehud Olmert to prison for his role in the Holyland affair.

Elor Azaria’s case shows how online pressure by extremist voices can swiftly go viral in the Israeli mainstream, forcing politicians to choose: Play catch up or resist, but at great personal cost.

Ahead of a recent discussion by the Ministerial Committee on Legislation on the “Facebook Bill,” IDI’s Dr. Tehilla Shwartz Altshuler wrote a policy statement in which she called the bill non-applicable to the modern day. She said the bill is likely to cause disproportionate censorship through what will be dysfunctional legal proceedings.

Israel's Military Censor, an institution that has no parallel in any other democracy in the world, must cease to exist.

IDI hosted an exclusive and high-level roundtable discussion on Facebook policies, Israel’s proposed Facebook Bill and freedom of expression. Simon Milner, Facebook policy director for the United Kingdom, Middle East and Africa, participated.

Dr. Tehilla Shwartz Altshuler discusses the challenges to transparency in the budgets of Israel's local authorities, including the need to make budgets accessible, to enable searches within budgets, and to facilitate comparisons between the budgets of different authorities.

In an op-ed in Ynet News, IDI researcher Dr. Haim Zicherman discusses the steps that Israeli society must take in order to enable ultra-Orthodox men to integrate into the Israeli army and workforce.

Is Israeli democracy weak, fragile and on the brink of collapse, or is it robust, stable and resilient? 

The Guttman Center for Public Opinion and Policy Research (then the Guttman Center) carried out a series of surveys just before, during and after the war.