Israel's Media Watch
update report # 32

March 2, 2000
- IMW New Website Name www.imw.org.il
- Vardi Report on IBA
- Recommendation: Fire the IBA Management
- Vardi: Replace 60 top people at IBA
- IBA Budget Approved; IMW Recommendation Adopted
- IMW and CAMERA Boards Meet
- IMW Bias Report on Dalia Ya'iri's morning interview program
- Dr. Ze'ev Drori, Galatz Director Resigns
- EYE ON THE MEDIA: Journalists as poodles By David Bar-Illan
- Jailed US editor gaining international support
- Canada: Journalists face self censorship
- Shut down the IBA - then reopen it

IMW News

1.  Reminder of New Website Name
We wish to remind you that IMW has registered a new domain name
which will bring you to the same website but with a name that is more
identifiable. 
Please note: http://www.imw.org.il

2.   Vardi Report on IBA
IMW's criticism of  the Vardi Report on the state of the Israel Broadcasting Authority
(see below and also in Words of Wisdom) zeroed in on the fact that it's recommendations
would contribute actually to a higher level of politicization of the public broadcasting network. 
IMW Chairman, Prof. Eli Pollak, noted in interviews that one of the recommendations
was to have the Prime Minister, who serves as the Minister responsible for overseeing
the IBA, disperse the public member council, remove all the senior professional staff
and appoint a temporary Director-General who would be responsible to the Prime
Minister.

The new 15-member directorate would be nominated by a committee made
up exclusively of academics, artists, and other persons of a very monolithic
cultural and social group.  This would be a return to the Bolshevistic
practices of the early years of the state.
Significantly, former IBA D-G, Motti Kirschenbaum, himself a leftist, criticised
this aspect of the report calling it a "total tragedy" and "something to be
totally prohibited"

(from Arutz 7, February 28, 2000)
RECOMMENDATION: FIRE THE MANAGEMENT
"An earthquake."  So describes Arutz-7 correspondent Haggai Seri a
particularly harsh report on the Israel Broadcasting Authority, written by
Brig.-Gen. Rafael Vardi (res.), submitted to Prime Minister Barak this
afternoon.  Vardi recommends that the IBA management be totally replaced.
"The IBA is sick, very sick, and a very painful and immediate operation is
required for its stabilization on new foundations," writes Vardi.  He
recommends that the senior management of both the radio and television
stations, including some department heads and deputy directors, be fired at
once.  The report attacks the inertia and inactivity of some management
levels, the violation of work guidelines, the lack of confidence on the
part of the IBA board in the management, the lack of supervisory measures,
and, most notably, the total disregard by the management of prior
"house-cleaning" recommendations.  Today's report follows last week's
revelations about inordinately high salaries among senior employees in the
public Israel Broadcasting Authority.

The Vardi report also finds that there exists no crystallized conception of
the function and essence of a public broadcasting authority.  Vardi
recommends that the entire IBA law be overhauled.  Correspondent Seri notes
that the IBA's budget for the year 2000 has still not been approved by the
Knesset.  Prime Minister Barak announced today that he will appoint a
committee to determine how to immediately implement the Vardi recommendations.

(from Jerusalem Post, February 28, 2000)
Vardi: Replace 60 top people at IBA
By Danna Harman and Greer Fay Cashman

JERUSALEM (February 28) - Like everyone before him who has conducted an
in-depth examination of the Israel Broadcasting Authority, Maj.-Gen. (res.)
Raphael Vardi has come to the conclusion that the IBA is "sick, very sick."
As he put it in his report published yesterday, what is required now is
"painful, deep-rooted surgery in order to recover."

Vardi, who was appointed last November by Prime Minister Ehud Barak to
investigate the IBA, presented recommendations for sweeping changes
throughout the IBA, specifically at leadership level.
Vardi said he was disturbed by what he perceived as political
considerations in the decision-making process, and - quoting from an old
Jewish proverb - reached the conclusion that "a herring stinks from its head."

In response to the report, Barak appointed a three-man committee to
implement the called-for changes. Prime Minister's Office Director-General
Yossi Kucik, cabinet secretary Isaac Herzog, and legal adviser to the prime
minister Alon Gelert will sit on the committee.

"The prime minister stressed that he believes it important to maintain and
strengthen the public channel," said a statement from his office. "He also
believes it is important to help cure the authority."
To implement change, Vardi suggested that both the director-general and the
chairman of the IBA be replaced, as well as the top brass of Israel
Television, Israel Radio, and department heads in both media. This would
mean some 60 top people would be removed from their positions.

Vardi acknowledged that the IBA has talented, highly professional staffers.
However, he claimed that a new leadership with more drive and initiative is
required to make proper use of their abilities.
Vardi further recommended amending the IBA's labor agreements to facilitate
early retirement of veteran staffers.

IBA Director-General Uri Porat welcomed the report.
The core of the problem, said Porat, is not so much the personalities as in
the Broadcasting Authority Law - which was enacted 35 years ago and created
an organizational and operational structure that is now unable to function.
During his first stint at the IBA 16 years ago, Porat complained the
Broadcasting Authority Law does not properly define responsibilities. He is
still making that complaint, more so than the first time around, as his
tenure has been punctuated by a power struggle with IBA Chairman Gil Samsonov.

Porat took his complaints to the state comptroller and the Prime Minister's
Office eight months ago.
Only by amending the IBA law to meet the real needs of the IBA, in the face
of increasing competition, will it be possible to effect a recovery, said
Porat.
"If that happens," he said, "I will have made my contribution to the
salvation of public broadcasting."

Vardi also recommended that the Broadcasting Law be amended. Like Porat, he
observed that the crux of the problem is in defining authority and
responsibility.
In the report, Vardi noted the mismanagement of the IBA is reflected in no
small measure by the stormy relations between the director-general and the
various IBA institutions.

He found the IBA to be overstaffed and the salary system to be
unsatisfactory, especially with regard to overtime and other payments.
He pointed to other areas of money squandering in production costs and the
purchase of external productions. He said the IBA will not be able to
continue to function under the prevailing circumstances.

Workers at the IBA said they were not surprised by the report, and would
"wait and see whether anything comes of it."
One senior staffer said that all earlier reports had come to similar
conclusions, and yet no changes had ever been made.

IMW's director attended the session of the Knesset's Education Committee
convened on Tuesday, March 1, to discuss the report.


3.   IBA Budget Approved; IMW Recommendation Adopted
Although, despite strenuous efforts, the Knesset's Finance Committee approved
the IBA budget for 2000, the committee did adopt a recommendation of IMW
and instructed
the IBA to report back to the committee every three months on the
follow-through of the
budget.  Moreover, the IBA, the Finance Ministry and the Prime Minister's
Director-General
were instructed to report back to the committee by June 1 to present the
details of the
recovery program planned for the IBA.
In another development, IMW had written to the chairman of the Knesset's
Finance Commitee, MK Eli Goldschmidt, and demanded that the session called
for this week to authorize the IBA budget be postponed.  IMW claimed that
as the budget proposal is
a new one, it must be authorized first by the Government, which as yet has
not been done.
At the session, covened on Wednesday, March 1, the legal advisor to the
committee
explained that the budget was not considered "new" even though changes had
been made.
These changes were deemed to be "internal" and thus did not require
reauthorization by
the government.

4.   IMW and CAMERA Boards Meet
IMW executive board members and members of its Honorary Presidium met with
members
of CAMERA while the latter visited in Israel on February 28.  The two media
watch groups discussed
professional issues and discussed the various types of activity
accomplished by them.

5.   IMW Bias Report on Dalia Ya'iri's morning interview program
IMW released its first findings of a review of bias in appearances of politicians
and commentators on Dalia Ya'iri's morning interview program broadcast over Kol
Yisrael's Second Station.  The "Another Matter" show is heard five days each week
between 8 and 10 AM on the Second Station bandwidth.  Sandwiched between the two
hour morning news roundup and a second two hour news interview show hosted by Shelly
Yechimovicz, Ya'iri's program deals regurgitatively with issues that are repeated
throughout the day by the Kol Yisrael news department.  IMW focused on the Syrian-Israel
negotiations and the question of a possible withdrawal from the Golan Heights.

In the two-month period between December 9, 1999, the day following
American President Clinton's announcement that direct Syrian-Israel talks
would reconvene and February 7, 2000, Ya'iri had invited 40 politicians and
public figures to air their views on the issue.  Fully three-quarters (29) of those
privileged to let the Israeli public know what they thought happened to be
persons who supported the Barak government line.  Only 27.5% (11) of those
offered an open mike held opinions in opposition to the government's position.

In a further category, background commentators and experts, those who
supposedly provide objective and academic analysis, of the 17 allowed to
express their opinions, none could be overtly identified as opposing
government policy.  They were either neutral or supported Barak's moves.
Previous studies of IMW which monitored Ms. Ya'iri's track record of guests
in 1995 and 1998 indicate a constant and clear preference for persons who
push left-wing viewpoints.  Beyond the scope of this article is her manner
of interviewing and questioning those who are in opposition to her personal
opinions

6.   Dr. Ze'ev Drori, Galatz Director Resigns
Dr. Ze'ev Drori, director of Galatz, the Israel Army Radio station, has
resigned this week.
In statements to the press, he describes what could be called a revolt of
the station staff against his attempts to alter the station's elitist image
as Tel Aviv -Yuppie - Lefty - Trendy.
IMW Chairman, Eli Pollak, who also serves as chairman of the IBA Plenum
committee overseeing the non-military programming element of Galatz will be taking
action to clarify the matter.

Media News

1.   EYE ON THE MEDIA: Journalists as poodles By David Bar-Illan

(February 25) A common complaint against the media is that they lack
objectivity. It is an unfair complaint; no thinking person can be truly
objective about anything that cannot be measured.

Yet journalists can be fair and evenhanded, especially in situations where
various sides of an issue have apparent validity. This holds particularly
true for national debates over matters of life and death, in which the
population is divided and emotions run high.

The proposed withdrawal from Lebanon is where such evenhandedness is
essential. It involves a momentous decision that may affect not only lives
of soldiers and civilians, but the country's future.

Yet no such evenhandedness can be found in the Israeli press. On the
contrary. It is as if a general media mobilization for an immediate
withdrawal has been called and obediently followed. Journalists, it seems,
view themselves as missionaries and crusaders on this subject.

One such journalist, host of the popular radio program It's All Talk Shelly
Yachimovich, admitted as much with disarming honesty when she appeared as a
guest on Razi Barkai's talk show on Army Radio last week.

She minced no words. Asked by Barkai about an interview by a like-minded
colleague, military correspondent Carmela Menashe, with soldiers pleading
for immediate extrication from Lebanon, Yachimovich said: "This war... has
been bleeding us for 18 years with generals who know exactly what to do but
leave us there... Every one of us has a personal vendetta against the
Lebanese swamp, no one in this country wants us to stay in that swamp... We
are supposed to change society and make it better.... I don't think it's
possible to be a journalist without having, if you'll excuse the
pretension, a sense of mission."

Barkai then asked: "[Assume] you have what we call in radio 10 'inserts' of
soldiers. Five say we should get out, and five say that as long as we are
there we should do the best job we can. Do you broadcast all 10, do you at
least keep the balance of half and half?"

To which Yachimovich replied: "Certainly one must keep one's balance,
Razi.... On my program I also interview people from the whole political
spectrum. Today it is terribly difficult to find people opposed to
withdrawal from Lebanon, so I pull them out with pincers."

Only regular Yachimovich listeners can appreciate the disingenuousness of
this reply. If any programs have ever served the cause of an immediate,
unilateral and unconditional evacuation of the Lebanon security zone, it is
the Yachimovich program.

It is impossible to reconcile Yachimovich's view of herself as political
crusader with Israel Broadcasting Authority regulations prohibiting the
voicing of political opinions by its staff. Nor do these regulations allow
journalists to feature selective interviews with soldiers, which cannot but
spread defeatism and fear. Crusading should be left to writers, columnists
and politicians.

BUT separation between opinion writers, program hosts and reporters does
not exist in Israel.

Yachimovich is hardly alone. Almost all reporters consider themselves
missionaries. To her credit, she is more open about her political agenda
than most. Last month she announced she had "proudly voted for Hadash," the
communist party. And she has admitted that the Israeli media are hopelessly
biased in favor of the Left.

"It is time to admit the facts," she said in a Ma'ariv interview in
December 1997. "The media are leftist... journalists do not speak the
language of the public, and the estrangement between them reaches new
heights every day. There is a total lack of trust."

In an op-ed in Ma'ariv, columnist Haggai Segal sums it up: "Israel Radio
should be forbidden to present controversial issues as consensual. The
hundreds of thousands of listeners who oppose unilateral withdrawal from
Lebanon are fed up with the network serving as an open microphone for the
Four Mothers organization".

"Why doesn't anyone in the broadcasting authority prevent Shelly
Yachimovich from turning her program into a patron of the 'restraint'
policy in the north? Even King Abdullah has not been interviewed on Jordan
television as often as representatives of the Four Mothers organization
have appeared on Shelly's program.

"Clearly, we shall ultimately regret the restraint and the withdrawal. If
Israel Radio starts being more balanced on Lebanon, it may have less to be
ashamed of when that happens."

(Note:  the printed version of this column also mentioned IMW's Daliah
Yai'ri's program but the JPost internet version ommitted this)

Media News Abroad

Jailed US editor gaining international support

Media organisations have rallied in support of a US newspaper publisher
who was sentenced to five days in jail for refusing to reveal his
sources. Tim Crews, the publisher, editor, reporter and photographer for
the Sacramento Valley Mirror, reported to the Tehama County Jail on
Saturday morning to begin serving his contempt of court sentence.

Superior Court Judge Noel Watkins sent Mr Crews to jail for refusing to
reveal his sources for an article on a former California Highway
Patrolman (CHP), accused of stealing a gun while he worked for a Tehama
County task force.

Fourteen media organisations filed court briefs supporting Mr Crews'
position, and Reporters Without Borders, a Paris-based watchdog
organisation, said on Monday that it will make public a letter
protesting Mr Crew's imprisonment.

Though Crews will be out of jail on Wednesday, he remains at risk of
being subpoenaed during the trial of former CHP officer Dewey Anderson,
said Tom Burke, Mr Crews' attorneys.

''He is willing to go to jail for the rights that everyone take for
granted. Our ability to freely criticise our government is really taken
for granted,'' Mr Burke said. 
Source: News 24
http://news.24.com/English/World/Americas/ENG_257297_1041879_SEO.asp

CANADA: JOURNALISTS FACE SELF-CENSORSHIP

The majority of Canadian journalists recently surveyed "identified external
pressures from owners, advertisers and interest groups as significant news
filters," report Bob Hackett and Richard Gruneau, in the "Canadian Centre
for Policy Alternatives (CCPA) Monitor". The authors published their
findings in "The Missing news Filters and Blind Spots in Canada's Press".
Forty-five percent of Canadian journalists surveyed indicated that "the fear
of reprisals from [media] owners occasionally or often leads reporters to
censor themselves," although an even higher number (52 percent) said that
they felt direct pressure "often" or "occasionally" from owners. In
addition, approximately one-third of those interviewed stated that they had
occasionally exercised self-censorship out of a fear of reprisals from
advertisers, say the authors.

With respect to pressures from owners, most of the journalists interviewed
qualified that these pressures are not explicit. "There are no
commandments.... Rather, it is a process of socialisation, something that
reporters and editors learn and internalise on the job," answered one of the
interviewees. Other reasons that journalists identified for their practice
of self-censorship concerned not wanting to anger and lose an important
information source, lose employment, or alienate themselves. An increase in
cutbacks and layoffs in Canadian media has aggravated this fear, say Hackett
and Gruneau. The report also notes that due to the various pressures and
constraints felt by Canadian journalists, "business is rarely approached as
critically... as either government or labour" in Canadian media.

Words of Wisdom

"Television enables you to be entertained in your home by
people you wouldn't have in your home."    - David Frost

Shut down the IBA - then reopen it
Ha'Aretz Editorial, February 29, 2000

The Israel Broadcasting Authority, which is paid for almost entirely by the
public, has not justified the large investment it receives for many years.
Television's Channel One fails to arouse the interest of even the natural audience
for public broadcasting, those people who seek programming untainted by
commercialism.
The IBA's management, whether appointed by rightist or leftist governments,
has not managed to improve the quality of programs. The sorry state of the
IBA is known to all, and has been analyzed at length by several expert
committees. A report on the IBA by Rafael Vardi, who was appointed by the
prime minister, came out this week and it can be added to the long shelf of
reports and recommendations that have been issued on the IBA.

Like previous ones, Vardi's report says the IBA is in a state of managerial
and creative breakdown. Human relations inside the network are sour,
management is incompetent and wasteful of public money, and there is an
overall state of low productivity. Channel One does not manage to produce
programs of reasonable standards, nor enough programming to justify the
scope of investment. It doesn't make use of those employees capable of good
programming, and there is no evidence that management is making any effort
to improve the situation. This holds true for almost every sphere at the
IBA in both TV and radio - from drama, documentary and news productions to
culture and sports. Apparently, the IBA, particularly TV's Channel One,
have managed to survive only because nobody has had the courage to shut
them down. Politicians get involved in appointments but are not eager to
improve the network, which would inevitably mean mass firings and strikes.

The Vardi report, as opposed to previous commissions, suggests starting
with a clean slate, including new legislation, disbanding the existing IBA
council, and firing management. Vardi recommends immediate action,
including the appointment of an interim management until the new law is
formulated.

After the current workforce receives compensation for being fired, those
whom the new management wants back would be able to negotiate new
contracts, freeing the employees and management from the old collective
wage agreements. Vardi recommends that the next public council for the IBA
not be appointed according to a political key and that the public council,
not the government, name the IBA's chief executive officer.

The subordination of the IBA's CEO to the government has been a failure for
years. The Vardi report recommends that instead of setting a predetermined
term of office, the public council should have the authority to fire the
CEO if results are unsatisfactory. Since the government is planning on
allowing another commercial television station to open and also on
increasing competition in the broadcasting industry with direct broadcast
from satellites, it would be worth providing public broadcasting in Israel
with the tools to give it a chance to compete in this new world. A public
broadcasting channel need not be poor, as so many have come to believe. But
to meet the challenge it needs wise management by skilled professionals who
have the mandate to make the necessary changes in personnel at the IBA.
There are many examples of high-quality public broadcasting channels able
to compete honorably with commercial networks for public approval as
measured by ratings. If the government is afraid to implement the Vardi
report, or delays its implementation, public broadcasting in Israel will
wither away and it is doubtful whether it will have a chance of reviving.

© copyright 2000 Ha'aretz.

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