"Labor" Upset at TV
Arutz Sheva News
Service
Sunday, Dec. 13, 1998 / Kislev 24, 5759
The Labor Party is fuming at Israel's Channel One television
station for
what it calls the "prejudiced policies" against the
party. Labor claims
that Prime Minister Netanyahu appeared 24 times on the station
during the
past month, while Labor leader Ehud Barak was featured on only
thee
occasions. Labor Secretary-General Ra'anan Cohen says that
the Israel
Broadcast Authority is acting as the "press office" for
Binyamin Netanyahu.
Israel's Media Watch
comments:
In the past we have noted that our research under three different
Prime
Ministers from both major parties points to a tendency of the
news to
award to members of government coalition parties between 65%-70%
of screen
time devoted to political news reporting. Nevertheless,
there is,
obviously, a difference between hard news and current affairs
discussion programs. In the latter case, imbalance in the
presentation
of political views is a legal and ethical infraction.
We previously appealed to the Labor Party to join us in
protesting
this problem but they refused as they were then in power.
It is
unfortunate that just because they now suffer that they
blame political interference when the real problem is
unprofessional
editing decisions and lack of rigorous application of the ethics
code.
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