The EBU is deeply concerned that the Israeli Government is pushing ahead with a bill that could force the closure of our Israeli Member Kan and shut down public service broadcasting in the country.
 
The bill aims to privatize the Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation by ending its public funding and seeking a private buyer. If no buyer is found for its TV and radio networks, the broadcaster could be closed within two years.
 
This new bill follows a recent proposal that threatens to put the broadcaster’s budget under direct state control and another allowing the government to take over the television rating measurement system.
 
According to media reports today, the Israeli Attorney General’s office has raised serious concerns about the procedural flaws in the proposed law and the grave risk it poses to media freedom. Deputy Attorney-Generals Avital Sompolinsky and Meir Levin are quoted as saying the bill: “joins a series of proposals being advanced at this time that threaten the corporation’s (Kan’s) independence and ability to fulfil its public roles.” 
 
The deputy AGs added: “There is a serious concern that the proposal is also motivated by the desire to stop the corporation’s broadcasts due to the content it airs. Even if the various steps do not come to fruition, each one on its own, and certainly when accumulated, creates a significant and severe chilling effect on the corporation and other media bodies in Israel.”
 
EBU Director General Noel Curran says: "Public service broadcasting in Israel is under sustained political attack, facing threats that not only jeopardize its independence but its very existence in the future. 
 
“We share the concern of the Attorney General`s office that this is a political reaction to KAN`s content, from a Government that wants to either get more control over it or shut down the broadcaster altogether.”
 
Israel’s public broadcaster has been a member of the EBU since 1957 and, as such, has access to news, sport, music content from its wide network of public service broadcasters.