Israel's
Media Watch
update report # 34
March 15, 2000
- IBA
prohibts all discussion of the police raid on the Arutz 7 offices
- Eitan Oren and the staged swearing-in ceremony
- Conflict-of-interest involving Dalia Ya'iri of radio Kol Israel
- Deputy Editor of the Channel One "Politika" program,
Itai Landsberg,
was fired after publishing an article critical of the IBA
management
- MK: Communications Ministry holding up broadband launch
- Israeli withdrawal from the Golan Heights, Ehud Ya'ari view
- Typical mindset of Israel's biased leftwing media personnel
- Abe Hirschfeld, former NYPost owner, broadcasted TV ads in
Israel during election
IMW News
1. IMW has appealed this week against
the police cessation of their investigation
of our complaint against the IBA Kol Israel radio employees.
IMW claims that
these employees acted in breach of trust in prohibiting
all discussion of the
police raid on the Arutz 7 offices last December.
The appeal was directed to Attorney-General Elyakim Rubinstein
and
expressed surprise that the police notified IMW that there was
"no criminal
guilt".
In the appeal, IMW noted that in stifling the right of free
expression of citizens
and in acting in blatant contravention of paragraph 4 of the IBA
Law which
assures that broadcasts will provide a modicum of balance of all
currently held
opinions by the public. In this case, our appeal emphasized,
all expression was
disallowed.
2. The High Court of Justice is expected to inform IMW shortly
when our oral
arguments can be heard in the matter of Eitan
Oren and the staged swearing-in
ceremony. This, after the State Prosecution's
office responded to our latest
batch of documents. IMW has petitioned the Court to
overturn the State
Prosecution's
decision not to indict Oren.
3. IMW complained to the IBA Chairman concerning a possible conflict-of-interest
case involving Dalia Ya'iri of radio Kol Israel.
Ms. Ya'iri has had Dr. Zohar Shavit
join her program as a guest interviewer. Dr. Shavit headed
a campaign organized last
year to pressure the IBA management to reverse a decision made to
cut Ms. Ya'iri's
show, "Another Matter", by one hour.
Last week, Ms. Ya'iri made an on-the-air pitch to the listeners
and praised a
recent book Dr. Shavit had published.
IMW demanded that Dr. Shavit not be allowed on Ms. Ya'iri's
program as it
raises a serious ethical problem. It would appear that Ya'iri
is repaying
Dr. Shavit for the lobbying help she extended her. No
public broadcasting system should
tolerate such behavior.
4. A "Letter to the Editor" by IMW's Director was
published in the Jerusalem Post
on March 5.
Taking advantage of a JPost caption to a picture of Rafael Vardi
supposedly
snoozing at a Knesset Committee session convened to discuss his
report on
the IBA, the letter attacked the anti-democratic elements
contained in the
report's recommendations.
Media News (Israel)
1. Deputy
Editor of the popular Channel One "Politika" current
affairs
interview program, Itai Landsberg, was fired recently after
publishing an
article critical of the IBA management in the
"Seventh Eye" magazine.
Last month, "Politika" host, Yaakov Achimeir, resigned
after IBA
Director-General Uri Porat berated him for making critical
remarks against
the IBA management on a media critique program broadcast over
Channel Two TV.
2. MK: Communications Ministry
holding up broadband launch
By Zvi Zrahiya March 9, 2000 Ha'aretz Knesset Correspondent
Chair of the Knesset's Internet committee, MK Michael Eitan (Likud)
is
demanding of the chairs of the Finance and Economics committees
that they
not bring up for approval the change in Bezeq's new system of
fees, before
the Communications Ministry submits to the Knesset the amendments
on the
operating permits given to the cable companies.
The Finance Committee, headed by MK Elie Goldschmidt (One Israel),
and the
Economics Committee, chaired by Avraham Poraz (Shinui), are
expected to
discuss the issue of Bezeq fees next week.
Eitan claims that the Israeli economy is crying out for broadband
communications, while the Finance and Communications Ministries
have not
yet formulated a uniform position on the issue of continuing the
cable
companies' operating franchise, and on implementing fast
communications
through ADS technology over phone lines.
One of the main public issues is the preservation of free
competition in
the field of communications infrastructure, Eitan says. The
public interest
demands the existence of competition among content providers over
the cable
infrastructure, he believes; nor should the cable companies'
monopoly be
allowed to become a monopoly on content, as well.
Free competition can only be assured if the Communications
Ministry decides
that the allowances it will give to the cable companies to
provide
communications services are conditional on the promise of free
and equal
access to all content providers, Eitan says. This includes
providers which
are not part of the cable companies, subsidiaries or companies
which are
not in any way connected to the cable firms.
Eitan claims that the Communications Ministry is refusing to
bring up the
terms of the allowances to the Knesset for public discussion, and
he
believes that the public interest is liable to be hurt. The
Internet
Committee head stressed that it is the Knesset's task to defend
this
interest, and therefore, the legislative body is fully justified
in taking
measures against the Communication Ministry until it submits the
proposed
terms of the allowances for scrutiny.
Regarding the issue of Bezeq's new fees, which are to be
submitted to the
Finance Committee next week, Eitan said that the fees do take the
needs of
Internet surfers into account, but that the proposed fees for
daytime hours
are still exaggeratedly high.
© copyright 2000 Ha'aretz. All Rights Reserved
Words of Wisdom
1. Asked about the public's response to
the subject of an Israeli
withdrawal from the Golan Heights, Israel
Television's Arab
affairs correspondent, Ehud Ya'ari, defined the problem thus,
in geographical-ideological conceptualizations:
"I'm not speaking about Tel Aviv. Tel Aviv creates
what I call
'Neveh-Avivism' [Neveh Avivim is a wealthy, Yuppie populated
neighborhood north of Tel Aviv]. Not that I have anything
against
Neveh Avivim, I have several good friends there, nevertheless,
this
is a political stand of Left-wingers that I do not find
acceptable,
and it doesn't include large portions of the country. Those
who
live in Jerusalem, as I do, cannot accept this approach. I
said
this during the period of the Oslo Accord and it angred several
of my
acquaintances."
- Olam Ha'Ishah (Woman's World), 197, March 2000, p. 16
2. In a personal opinion slot on the "Media File"
program, produced by
the Educational Television Network and broadcast over Channel Two,
Yael
Paz-Melamed illustrated the typical
mindset of Israel's biased leftwing media
personnel. Shown on Saturday, March 11,
2000, Ms. Paz-Melamed complained
about the media treatment of Education Minister Yossi Sarid in
his battles
against the Shas party. Excerpts of her remarks follow:-
"In a very strange way, we should have expected the media to
especially have
supported the very correct and very firm steps taken by Yossi
Sarid in all his
affairs in connection with the Shas crisis. But that isn't
what happened...the
media still relates to Shas as a dovish party and is still
remonstrating with Yossi
Sarid all the time...as if he is ruining the peace [damaging
Barak by creating
disputes with Shas]...instead of understanding that Sarid is
fighting the proper
battles...I can't see that Yossi Sarid can yield in this matter [of
Deputy Minister
Meshullam Nehari of Shas] and the media must understand well that
Yossi Sarid,
according to his weltanschauung, cannot yield and I think that
this is for the
good of us all..."
3. "'Media tends to respond
when public opinion turns against it.
We can be a positive force for change, however, not by being
media bashers,
but because we are media people and because we want to encourage
-- not
restrict -- open and informed debate.'" - Meg Carter, The
Independent (UK)
4. "I thought that as media people express their opinions
about almost
every subject, it would be permitted to express an opinion on
what is
happening in the IBA. Those that wish to deal with my
thoughts by applying
sanctions against the person
expressing the opinion rather than the opinion,
belongs in the previous century". - Itai Landsberg (see
item above)
Media News (Abroad)
1. Abe
Hirschfeld, former NYPost owner, was successful in
broadcasting TV ads in Israel during the 1999
election campaign
in support of peace. Breaking new ground, Hirschfeld bucked
the
legal system which had previously allowed electioneering ads to
be shown only in the framework of party propaganda.
The following item deals with another aspect of his public life:
N.Y. mogul sentenced 90 days in jail
NEW YORK (AP) - March 9, 2000 -
Real estate mogul Abe Hirschfeld was sentenced to 90
days in jail Thursday because he violated an order to keep quiet
about his trial for allegedly trying to hire a hit man to kill
his
business partner. Hirschfeld, the 80-year-old millionaire who
once
offered Paula Jones $1 million to drop her sexual harassment
lawsuit
against President Clinton, was convicted of contempt of court in
a
non-jury trial in January. He brought several newspaper stories
in
court Thursday in an effort to convince Justice Harold Beeler he
was
too honest and important to go to jail. The judge was not
convinced,
however, and also fined Hirschfeld $8,000. The judge had issued a
warrant for Hirschfeld's arrest Wednesday after Hirschfeld failed
to
show up for sentencing.
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