-   Eli Pollak, IMW Chairman and Yisrael Medad, IMW Director
met with MK Zevulon Orlov, Chairman of the Knesset Education
Committee.  Orlov's Committee supervises all media concerns
that are dealt with in the Knesset.

MK Orlov reconfirmed IMW's status as a permanent guest
of the Committee when media matters are brought to its agenda.
He also discussed different media themes that he thought would
be appropriate for the Committee to discuss in the future.

-   Deputy Minister Yitzhak Vaknin in the Ministry of Communicationshas agreed in principle to meet with IMW representatives and an appointment is tentatively arranged for the very near future.

-   IMW was informed by the State Attorney's Office that the appeal against the decision to close the file on the investigation of Eitan Oren, suspected of staging a fabricated news clip of a "swearing-in ceremony" of Avishai Raviv's Eyal organization, was still under review.

The letter contained an apology for the lack of communication since
the appeal was filed in middle May this year.  Miriam Suker, a senior
Justice Department official was assigned to the appeal.

IMW is determined to utilize all possible legal avenues in
pursuit of justice in this matter based on the open evidence.

-   The IMW weekly personal opinion corner broadcast over Arutz 7 on Thursdays has been suspended due to the station's desire to afford others an opportunity for free expression.
The "Freedom of Broadcasting" hour-long interview program
continues at its regular hour of 8-9AM every Sunday morning.

-   The preventing of IMW from reaching the audience of the main public broadcast radio of Kol Yisrael continues.  The two main
morning interview hosts, Shelly Yechimovicz and Daliah Ya'ari,
consistently refuse to entertain any IMW representative on their
programs.

Kol Yisrael's media show, Docu-Media, has hosted Eli Pollak although the television edition has studiously avoided permitting an IMW rep. to appear.

-   IMW complained about a gross lack of balance relating to
a segment broadcast on the Educational Television Network (ETN)
program, "Woman's Viewpoint", via TV's Channel Two.

The segment, moderated by feminist journalist Billy Moskuna-
Lerman, dealt with the subject of women and the military.  The
show's participants included the head of "Four Mother's Movement",
a group championing immediate withdrawal from Lebanon, Ruth
Ben-David; Manuela Dviri, another movement activist who writes in the Ma'ariv daily on the subject; Vered Shomron, the head of yet another anti-war group called "New Medical Profile" and Kol Yisrael's military correspondent Carmela Menasheh.  It should be noted that Moskuna-Lerman admitted in an interview that should would support her son's decision to refuse military service if he so decided.

IMW stated that the show was unbalanced and did not include,
for example a Women's Corps representative.  We also complained
that the participants were asked to give PM Barak advice on how
to more quickly withdraw the troops, turning the segment into a
blatant political statement.

-   IMW's special report on the bias promoted [in Hebrew] by the two main daily newspapers during the elections, Ma'ariv and Yediot Ahronot, which originally appeared in the Ha'Umma Quarterly, was republished by the weekly Makor Rishon, including some minor corrections.

As a result, Daniel Bloch, moderator of Kol Yisrael's current affairs
program on the First Station, will be interviewing Yisrael Medad on
Friday, October, 29.

From the Words of Lord Holme, recently appointed
Chairman of the British Broadcasting Standards Commission:

"On the fairness side, freedom of information has to be balanced
by fair and responsible journalism and a basic right to privacy...
we will play an active role in ensuring that the broadcast media
remain accountable to public expectations, and do so openly and
transparently ourselves".

IMW applauds these goals and repeats it own aim of establishing,
through legislation, an Israeli complaints review board, similar in
form to the BSC and other institutions, as was recommended in
the Peled Commission Report of which IMW's chairman, Prof. Eli
Pollak, was a member.