Media !!
An Objective 
Elections' Observer?
(Written January 1996, before the elections, during Mr. Peres
governement)
Israel is a country without a truly independent television
broadcasting authority.
- Both television channels, One and Two, are state-
sponsored to a greater and lesser degree.
- Both have responsible ministers, Shulamit Aloni and
Shimon Peres, respectively.
- Both have so-called public councils which in reality are
the representatives of political parties.
- The budget for TV's Channel One comes from the public
purse in the form of a license fee, the "agra".
This situation, we feel, is one in which the sancrosant
principle of "the public's right to know"
is tenuous, at best. Thus, it was with concern that we received
the news that in this coming week, the Knesset is about to ratify
a coalition proposed law which will enable the Israel
Broadcasting Authority (IBA) to influence the upcoming election
campaign by effectively controlling the public's "right to
know" rather than serving that right.
Paragraph 5(A)(2) of the Law for Election - Methods of
Electioneering prohibits the displaying the image of a candidate
for the Knesset on the television screens for a period of 30 days
prior to the elections. Calling the present law 'archaic' the
heads of the IBA and the Second TV channel are lobbying strongly
for passage of this radical change. They claim that candidates
will in anyway be seen daily on cable TV and so there is no
reason why their stations should not participate as well.
We believe that the proposed change is actually concerted
effort by the government to exploit the supposedly independent
broadcasting authorities to influence the upcoming election and
to assure the election of Mr. Peres as prime minister and the
continued supremacy of the Labor-Meretz coalition.
During the past year, Israel's Media Watch has reported
numerous violations of the law regarding fairness, balance and
variety as well as the code of ethics by the electronic media.
We have documented imbalance in presenting opposing views on
the program 'Popolitika' as regards guests, format
and time allocation. That program's notoriety came to national
attention after it was reported in the Yediot Ahronot daily of
November 9th that the editor of the program had stated his view
that the program is 'leftist' and will remain so. His letter of
apology was not permitted to be made public.
The police are completing their investigation on our complaint
that Channel One, according to our suspicions, staged a supposed 'swearing-in
ceremony' of the infamous Eyal group, headed by GSS
(General Security Sevice) agent Avishai Raviv.
This week Israel's Media Watch published a report detailing
the pronounced bias in favor of the government in Kol Yisrael's
daily radio talk/interview show hosted by Dahlia Ya'iri.
Another report focused on the week following the Rabin
assassination as reflected on TV's Channel One. The report noted
the statements of incitement allowed to be broadcast which
accused Opposition politicians of fomenting the atmosphere which,
to their mind, directly led to the murder.
There was no attempt to equitably balance them. Our files
contain dozens of complaints regarding accuracy, proper interview
procedure, expressions of personal opinions, incomprehensible
editorial decisions and other issues of journalistic ethics.
It is our considered opinion that Israel's citizenry cannot
depend on the IBA for fair and impartial coverage, in the most
comprehensive sense of the term, especially at a time of national
soul-searching and debate which is what elections are.
The law as it is at present, although perhaps awkward for the
cameramen, is wise. As long as the electronic media are given to
a form of government control, it would not be unnatural not to
expect them to be fair towards the opposition. The present law
forbids appearances of candidates outside the electioneering
commercials prepared by the parties themselves. There have been
precedents in instances of extraordinary circumstances, if the
need arises. This arrangement truly assures that all candidates
get a fair shake with equal time allotted according to the law.
If the government were truly interested in fair and accurate
reporting, it would privatise the IBA. This would reduce
dependence of the media on the government and would be a great
step forward in assuring the public's right to know.
Elections this year are a time of crisis. Whatever the results
of these elections, the public should have the feeling that the
campaign was fair, free and unbiased.
Allowing the electronic media to meddle, will damage Israel's
democracy and will do very little to heal the wounds already
existing in Israeli society. We call upon all responsible MK's to
vote against any change in the election law.
Professor Eli Pollak is Chairman of Israel's Media Watch and
Yisrael Medad its Executive Director.
Israel's Media Watch is a non-partisan advocacy group
concerned with the ethical and professional standards of the
media in Israel.
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