Israel's Media Watch
update report # 35

March 19, 2000

- Does a radio station operated by the military have any place in a democratic society?
- Itai Landsberg's article in "The Seventh Eye" of March 2000 for which he was summarily
dismissed from his position as deputy editor of the Channel One "Politika" program.
- A comment on the Vardi Report from the Charedi Press

IMW News

1. Their Master's Voice
Does a radio station operated by the military have
any place in a democratic society? And why should
taxpayers support such an enterprise? An exploration
of the politics - and the nostalgia - that have kept
Army Radio (Galatz) going for over half a century
By Uriya Shavit and Ariel Weiss

Its first day on the air was a festive occasion. In September 1950, a
trumpet fanfare and the playing of the national anthem, "Hatikva," heralded
the inauguration of Army Radio (Galei Tzahal), a station operated by
soldiers. Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion announced that the station would
have two objectives: to serve as "a tool for security and defense, a direct
means of communication for drafting and training," and as "a tool for
education" in the army and among the nation's youth.Fifty-one years have
passed since then. Station employees have provided many hours of pleasure
to a large audience of listeners and, to a great extent, shaped the face of
both the written and electronic media in Israel. On the other hand, the
station's special character and the built-in contradiction between freedom
of the press and the duty to preserve military secrecy have stirred debate
about the need for it. This debate was revived with greater urgency
following the resignation of the station's commander, Ze'ev Drori, two
weeks ago.

Arguments in favor of closing the station, or at least transferring it to
civilian control, have gathered force in recent years. The number of
electronic media channels has grown significantly, so fears that the
closure of Army Radio would give the Israel Broadcasting Authority (IBA) a
monopoly on information have abated. Colleges and universities have opened
faculties of communications, reducing what was once the station's primary -
and inherently problematic - role of training journalists. Israel has
become a less militaristic society, and it is clear, even to the station's
enthusiastic listeners, that there is something irrational about the
existence of a national military radio station in a democratic country. So
the time may be ripe for a serious public debate on the station's future:
How much is it costing us? How does it work? What are the pros and cons of
perpetuating the existing situation? But no such debate has yet taken place.

A place in their hearts

"Those who hold the reins of the discourse have a warm place in their
hearts for Army Radio, and some of those who influence the direction of
public discourse do their reserve military duty at Army Radio," argues
media scholar Gabi Wiman, a professor at the University of Haifa. "In
recent years, there have been more forums dealing with the media and more
media conferences. When criticism of Army Radio comes up, these people come
out in defense of the station. If there's any criticism, it comes from
journalists who did not come up through the station."

Even MK Limor Livnat (Likud), who served as Communications Minister in the
Netanyahu government, is convinced that the vast presence and power of Army
Radio alumni in the Israeli media is preventing a serious public debate
over whether the station ought to continue to exist. "A good portion of the
broadcasters and journalists in Israel 'grew up' in Army Radio and they
have tremendous nostalgia for the station. This is very nice and only
human, but we needn't be guided by it. The politicians are afraid of the
media. Who would be so bold as to close a station on which he is
interviewed? Who knows where the journalists working there will be tomorrow?"

Livnat says she was very disappointed by the Zuckerman report on public
broadcasting in Israel (submitted to Benjamin Netanyahu in 1997) on this
point. "Zuckerman didn't say that Army Radio should be closed down. I got
the impression that it wasn't because he felt the station must continue to
exist, but because it was uncomfortable for him [to say otherwise]."

In the report, Arnon Zuckerman (former director-general of the IBA),
explained the problem entailed in the station's continued operation. "A
network that airs military broadcasts is an alien species in the media
world of a democratic country," he wrote. But in his conclusions, he
recommended that Army Radio continue to exist and that "the station's
activities be carried out within the existing framework, since without this
framework, there is no justification for its existence."

Surprisingly, Zuckerman now agrees with Livnat. "My position has changed
since the report was submitted," he says. "In the report, we did Army Radio
a favor by not recommending that it be closed. We did that because it is a
unique Israeli phenomenon. Today, I think that the station should be closed
down or else transferred to private hands. There has been massive
interference by the army in the station recently. In addition, it airs
commercials in a practically unrestrained manner, and it has lost the
freshness and freedom it once had."

Army criteria

When Zuckerman talks about the loss of "freshness and freedom," he is
referring, for example, to an incident that occurred on February 20,
involving Deputy Defense Minister Ephraim Sneh and Yinon Magal, the
reporter who covers settlement issues. Magal publicized an exclusive report
about a list of 21 settlements that the defense establishment was
recommending be evacuated in the framework of a final status agreement with
the Palestinians. Sneh came on the air to deny the report and spoke very
patronizingly of Army Radio.

"As of this moment, you are still Galei Tzahal and not Galei 'somebody
else' and I consider this incident a matter of great severity!," he said.
"I suggest that you cease broadcasting this report because it is false."

This week, Sneh saw fit to explain how he perceives the role of Army Radio.
"They made a very grave error. Their report had no basis. Army Radio is not
a private station. It's the army's station, and if it is not [going to be]
the army's station, it should be dismantled. If it does not conduct itself
in accordance with army criteria as far as the reliability of its
reporting, it will not continue to exist." Sneh says that he did not seek
Magal's resignation; he made do with sending a letter about the incident to
the Chief of Staff.

Magal, 30, served as an officer in Sayeret Matkal, the general staff's
elite special-operations force. He stands by his report, asserting that it
is "totally accurate." He says he got full backing from the head of the
station's news division, Tzvika Goldberg. "I didn't feel that any pressure
was being put on me at the station," he adds. But as a civilian employee of
Army Radio, Magal has more leeway than reporters stationed there in the
context of their compulsory military service. It is not clear that his
younger colleagues would be able to remain complacent in the face of Sneh's
accusatory words.

Does Army Radio give breaks to the IDF and the defense establishment? A
senior figure among the military reporters claims the answer is yes. "Army
Radio is not a free press. The reporters are threatened with confinement
and detention should they upset the commanders. Moreover, people from the
army have a lot of influence on the station and they do what they want
there. It's not surprising that every media outlet, apart from Army Radio,
reported on the feelings of some soldiers against a continued presence in
Lebanon. It's not because the Army Radio reporters are bad reporters. They
simply didn't work in this direction because they're not supposed to
broadcast reports against the IDF."

Arnon Zuckerman concurs: "On Army Radio, the news is supervised by the
army, so it's limited to a degree. They didn't have reports like the ones
Carmela Menashe did after talking to soldiers in the north, even though I'm
sure it wasn't anything new for them."
Dr. Gad Barzilai, a lecturer in political science who has studied issues
related to the military and democracy, says he doesn't feel that the hand
of censorship on Army Radio is especially strict. "Army Radio is, after
all, part of the syndrome of a military society. They don't do any
additional damage. You also have to ask what would happen if there were no
Army Radio. The media might have less access to what happens in the army."

The budget

When Ehud Barak was appointed chief of staff in April 1991, one of his
first moves was to try to close Army Radio. It wasn't just the "anomaly" (a
term widely in use at the time) of the station's existence that served as
his rationale. Barak sought to close the station as part of his broad
program of budget cutbacks. Among other things, the chief of staff
announced a freeze on the publication of all the army publications (apart
from Bamahaneh) and examined the possibility of laying off thousands of
active duty personnel and closing the offices of some military attaches abroad.

A concerted media effort against the attempt to close the station ensued.
Probably no other move concerning the Israeli media ever caused so many
publicists to wax as furious.

On March 28, 1991, Ha'aretz ran an editorial entitled "A welcome anomaly."
"Chief of Staff Barak believes that it's inappropriate for an enlisted man
in compulsory service to interview the defense minister without
[exhibiting] the respect required of his junior rank," said the editorial.
"Theoretically, he's correct, but these few and unusual enlisted men are
the secret of the station's charm and the reserve from which the next
generation of journalists will blossom... this anomaly is worth preserving."

A telephone survey conducted by the Shiluv Institute found that "88 percent
of the public supports the continued existence of Army Radio as an
independent military station." The survey-takers did not take the trouble
to explain just how a "military station" could be "independent."

In the end, Barak was forced to back down. The station was preserved, and
soldiers doing their compulsory service continued to report on senior
officers. Prime Minister and Defense Minister Barak seems to have learned a
lesson from the experience of Chief of Staff Barak. This week, in response
to the question of what the prime minister's position is on the future of
Army Radio, his office replied: "The prime minister supports the continued
existence of the station and appreciates its contribution to the media map
in Israel." The prime minister did not offer any answer as to why he had
changed his stance on the issue. Needless to say, the fundamental problems
pointed out by Barak when he was chief of staff - the "anomaly" and the
budget problem - remain unchanged.

Army Radio is founded on the cheapest source of manpower around - soldiers
- but even so, its yearly costs are substantial: annual expenses are
estimated at about NIS 30 million. The station has to take many
money-saving measures. For example, it has no budget for taxis and does not
fully reimburse reporters for their expenses. About 100 soldiers are
currently serving there. Between 30 and 40 soldiers take part each year in
the station's three-month training course; they are selected from hundreds
of candidates. The lengthy winnowing process, which begins with a test of
general knowledge and ends with a personal interview, also costs money.
About 250 people are registered as reservists for the station, and together
they provide about 1,500 days of reserve duty annually. Army Radio is
funded not just by the Defense Ministry, but also by the Road Safety
Administration, which makes possible the existence of the Galgalatz station
(which offers music and traffic information) as well as the "public service
announcements" aired on it.

Army Radio's activity is not fully defined by law; it is subject to the
army's high command and the orders of the general staff. The Broadcasting
Authority Law stipulates that a commission of a plenum of the IBA shall
oversee the station's non-military programming, but fails to define what
constitutes a "non-military program." Chairman Eli Pollak admits that the
commission's oversight of Army Radio is fairly spotty: The commission meets
only a few times a year. At the end of 1999, the plenum of the IBA drafted
new rules intended to increase its oversight of the station. The rules have
not yet been approved by Barak and it is not clear that they ever will be.

In the market

The ambiguous division of authority is not merely a theoretical problem; it
allows the station to expand its activities into areas that are clearly
non-military. The commercial character that the station has taken on in the
last few years demonstrates this. During Ze'ev Drori's tenure, the term
"sponsor" was used to apply to academic institutions and airline companies
alike. Drori himself says that during the two years that he ran the
station, its income from "sponsors" and its Internet business - the station
sells news to several Internet sites - amounted to about NIS 20 million.
"We were careful not to overstep the law or the army guidelines and not to
create an overload of 'public service announcements,'" he claims.

Even the station's staunchest supporters, including some of its former
commanders, think that Drori led Army Radio down a path that threatens its
continued existence. Moshe Shlonsky, who preceded Drori as commander, says,
"In my time, we took sponsorships just to get by, and in Drori's time, it
became a big market. There's a difference between pissing in the swimming
pool and pissing from the diving board. It hurts the station. You're making
NIS 50 million, but you start to irritate the army and the listeners and
then you lose the whole thing."

Commercial radio stations are the ones most angered by Army Radio's
increasingly commercial character. Since its personnel costs are so much
cheaper, argues Tzach Granit, director-general of the Union of Regional
Radio Stations, Army Radio obtains advertisers under unfair conditions as
far as competition is concerned. "Under Drori, there was a breaking of all
the accepted and agreed-upon limits," says Granit. "In Drori's time, they
became a commercial station and unilaterally changed the rules of the game
in the market."

Last August, Granit got a commitment from the military advocate general
that "illegal" broadcasts on Army Radio would be halted until the subject
was investigated. According to Granit, after a pause of several months,
Army Radio went back to airing commercials. Now he can pin his hopes on a
bill submitted by MK Livnat that would prohibit Army Radio from airing
anything in exchange for payment. But it's doubtful whether the bill will
pass even its preliminary reading. Army Radio has some loyal fans in the
Knesset who will very likely vote against it.

Coalition chairman Ophir Pines (One Israel) says that he doesn't see any
reason to support the bill. "I love Army Radio, I love its quality," he
explains. "It doesn't seem reasonable to me to legislate something like
this. The legislator doesn't need to make laws against the broadcasting of
'sponsorships.'"

The content

To what extent do the broadcast schedules of Army Radio and Galgalatz serve
the soldiers? Depends on whom you ask. Moshe Shlonsky: "There are soldiers
on the Lebanese front - when you reach them with the mobile broadcast
crews, it does them good. It's worth having the station just for that."
Drori: "The station routinely deals with subjects that other stations do
not - such as bereavement. In a time of serious rifts in society, the
station teaches basic values, such as knowledge of the country. The army
has to listen to society and Army Radio is one of the tools for doing this."

The station's opponents find these arguments amusing. "That's ridiculous,"
says Arnon Zuckerman, when asked about the programs that soldiers like.
"How many hours a week are devoted to soldiers? If Army Radio were to
close, and there would be a real need for programming for soldiers, other
stations would step into the breach." Prof. Wiman: "Researchers who
analyzed the content of what is broadcast on Army Radio found that military
topics are far from the main subject. The proportion of civilian topics has
increased over the years. Today, the station mostly has news and
entertainment, just like every other station."

In the morning - peak hours for listening to the radio - Army Radio does
offer a series of current affairs programs to compete with those of Reshet
Bet. At two in the afternoon, it airs Yoav Kutner's daily music program,
followed by the satirical show, "The Black Box," which began broadcasting
in 1999. The early evening hours are devoted to call-in shows, an evening
news program and an economics program. At Drori's initiative, the station
also began airing a daily program on military and security affairs (called
"Security Zone") at this time of day; it is overseen by Yitzhak Tunik, who
also became the station's acting commander following Drori's resignation.
After the broadcast of the Channel Two news comes a lecture from "The
University on the Air (Hauniversita Hameshuderet) and then personal
programs intended for soldiers. The station occasionally inserts specially
produced programs on cultural topics. Basically, it is only in the evening
hours that soldiers find something uniquely for them on Army Radio (or on
weekend programs like "Kola Shel Ima" ("Mother's Voice").

Galgalatz is devoted to music and traffic reports and is crammed with
public service announcements about road safety. It competes with regional
stations like Radio Tel Aviv and Radius, which concentrate on music
programming. Its only noticeable link to the military is the ads exhorting
soldiers to be wary of whom they hitch rides with.

The ratings

Army Radio does have a devoted listening audience, but it's not as young as
one might expect.
According to a study done in December 1999 by the TGI company, the average
rate of Army Radio listeners on a weekday is 25.5 percent of the general
population. The rate of listeners in the 18 to 44 age group is just
slightly higher - 27.7 percent. The station most popular with young people
is Galgalatz: It attracts 26.6 percent of the listeners among the general
population and 35 percent among those aged 18 to 44. This may be why most
of the regional stations' ire is directed at Galgalatz. "I can live with
Army Radio somehow," says Tzach Granit. "But Galgalatz - what they're doing
could make every private station commercial - if they had the same
financing from the Road Safety Administration. It has no connection to the
IDF."

The politics

The story of the appointment and resignation of Army Radio Commander Ze'ev
Drori - about which most of those involved are careful to comment only off
the record - well illustrates the power games going on between people in
the media, the army and politics.

The whole affair began in late 1997, when then defense minister Yitzhak
Mordechai selected the esteemed Dr. and Colonel (res.) Ze'ev Drori, who
lacked any journalistic experience, to oversee the station. Public
criticism of this curious choice was subdued, mainly because Drori - who
was perceived by the soldiers as an odd bird - was to have editor-in-chief
Gil Omer, hitherto the head of the station's news division and a figure
much admired by the soldiers, as his second-in-command.

The second episode in the saga occurred about two years later, when Omer
left to head the editorial board at Yedioth Ahronoth and Drori took the
responsibilities and authority of editor-in-chief upon himself. This time
as well, public criticism was fairly tame. But journalists at the station
were seriously worried about their professional future under Drori's
exclusive leadership.

The third episode began when one of Drori's adversaries leaked to Carmela
Menashe a transcript of a conversation between Drori and the station's
employees' committee, in which Drori boasted of his excellent connections
with politicians and the chief of staff. Drori was very embarrassed, and
was forced to apologize.

The fourth, and perhaps strangest, incident occurred when Drori fired news
division chief Zvika Goldberg following a series of disagreements on
professional issues. The chief educational officer, Elazar Stern, canceled
the dismissal announcement, effectively opposing Drori.

In the fifth chapter, Drori resigned his position as commander of the
station. One of the reasons he gave was that Stern had conspired against
him because he didn't agree to appointing Avi Benayahu - Mordechai's media
advisor at the time of Drori's appointment - to replace Gil Omer as
editor-in-chief.

The sixth, and not necessarily last, chapter is presently unfolding.
Yitzhak Tunik is serving as the station's acting commander, but the list of
candidates for the permanent position is long, and composed of quite
influential names, including Avi Benayahu, currently the station's military
analyst (as part of a somewhat controversial arrangement); IDF spokesman
Oded Ben-Ami and Gil Omer. The belief is that Barak would prefer to appoint
Omer, but the latter has yet to decide if he wants the job. If Omer decides
to remain at Yedioth, the lobbying campaign by various other candidates
could intensify. Barak could establish a committee to examine the issue and
consult with it when making his determination, but there's no law that
obliges him to do so. The appointment of the commander-director of one of
the most powerful public media bodies in Israel does not even require
government approval. The appointed candidate needs to win the vote of just
one person - Ehud Barak.

One might have expected media people to rebel against the tremendous
influence of the political-military establishment on purely journalistic
matters. But those who normally offer such trenchant commentary about
perversions of normative standards in Israeli society, and in the IDF in
particular, have mostly withheld their protest.

Journalist Ilana Dayan: "For me personally, there's no other radio and I'm
not prepared to work at another radio [station]. My service at Army Radio
was a formative period for me as a journalist and that's why I look at it
subjectively. As someone who wasn't born here and always strove to belong,
[I see] Army Radio as one of the icons of Israeliness. Even if it was born
defective and wrong, and even if there's an inappropriate connection
between the military and journalism, there are a lot of things that were
born defective that turned out to be lovely and important."

This week, the IDF spokesman refused to allow the station's acting
commander, Yitzhak Tunik, to be interviewed for Ha'aretz Magazine. A
request to interview Colonel Stern was also declined. Army Radio, it was
explained, needs some quiet right now.
© copyright 2000 Ha'aretz. All Rights Reserved

2. We have excerpted a few sentences from Itai Landsberg's article in
"The Seventh Eye" of March 2000 for which he was summarily dismissed
from his position as deputy editor of the Channel One "Politika" program.

"True, we do have problems [at the IBA in contrast to other TV networks].
There are problems caused by the workers' committees but, more importantly,
there are real problems of bad and unprofessional management.  We have no
management talent.  That simple.  He [Uri Porat] who sat across from Rafi Ginat
and signed without arguing about producing a one half hour weekly production
to cost 7 million NIS yearly is no manager; he is a person lacking in talent...
He who paid to the raw recruit Miri Shiloh $42,000 per program - a program that
could have gone on with one hour's work, five telephone calls and one red couch -
is no manager.  He who brought us the Kushiner program for a rating of 4.5%
without doing a pilot or reviewing it's quality before broadcasting it, is the same one
who tried to bring us the problematic "KolBotek" [the program that Rafi Ginat was to
host].  He who due to his administrative failures which cause a budget minus of
tens of millions of shekels wishes to fire hundreds of employees in order to cover
his overdraft that he himself created due to his lack of management skills - is no
administrator but, in my opinion, a gambler with the public's money."

2. A comment on the Vardi Report from the Charedi Press

Will the Vardi Commission Report Help Barak Consolidate
His Control Over the Media?
American Yated Neeman, March 10, 2000

The Vardi Commission Report which was published last week revealed
the corruption and abuses existing in the Israel Broadcasting Authority.
Although it elicited sarcastic and I-told-you-so looks on the faces of
religious Jews throughout the country, a deeper look at the recommendations
of the Report shows that the religious have nothing to be optimistic above.
In fact, the Report is being used by the government to consolidate it's
grip and control over the media. This is our unfortunate conclusion after
studying the details of the report, its recommendations, and the swift
measures implemented by the government as soon as the report was published.
Major-Brig. Raphael Vardi, who headed the commission appointed by
Barak, says he was stunned at the corruption that he found in the IBA. He
explained that most of his information was collected from interviews with
90 IBA employees. He did not do a more conclusive study involving
researching accounting files, or he might have arrived at even more damning
conclusions.
After years of the Israeli media pouncing on the religious and
particularly the yeshivos for corrupt record-keeping, extorting ministry
funds and robbing the public chest, the Vardi Report revealed last week
that the paragon of waste and corruption was none other than the Israel
Broadcasting Authority. The Vardi Commission's report was damning
throughout, and used such condemning comments as "improper administration"
"corruption" "phony recording of workhours" "funds for close friends"
"accumulating deficits" "salaries for employees who are sleeping at home"
"surplus of manpower" and "swollen system."
Among the claims made by the Commission: Most of the Authority's
budget goes to pay fat salaries of senior officials in violation of the
salaries determined by the Civil Authority for civil employees. Decisions
made by high-ranking executive are fraught with political rather than
professional motives. Many Authority employees do nothing while getting
salaries paid into their accounts. Journalists who are close to
high-ranking executives get higher salaries. The general director ignores
the reports of the Authority comptroller. Important work procedures are not
kept. Proper supervision and control measures are not activated as should
be. Contracts are signed with various journalists without following proper
administrative procedures. The Authority has no clearcut concept of the
aim, substance or nature of public broadcasting. There exists a culture of
registering phony additional hours with the knowledge and agreement of the
administration.
Concerning the news desk of Kol Yisroel. "News which in the end
turned out to be incorrect or inexact is regularly broadcast. The director
of the radio, Amnon Nadav, already serves in his job for twelve years, a
tenure that is too long for a news director."
Vardi riveted attention on the strange hiring practices entrenched
in the IBA. "There is a surplus of manpower, with many permanent employees
not working in practice, while in their place, hundreds of temporary
workers are employed for the same jobs. Despite the fact that the IBA has
its own attorney general, it employed external legal consultants during
1999 at a cost of close to one million shekels.
The salaries of high-ranking officials in the IBA parallels that of
the highest politicians and government executives in the country. The video
department deputy director makes 46,364 shekels a month, supervisors make
45,465 and 43,871 shekels, a director for engineering services for the
radio station makes 46,127, electronic maintenance supervisor 44,914,
maintenance dept. deputy director 41,873, desk coordinator, 45,052,
mechanical maintenance department director 40,169, and the Arab radio
director 40,891. Keep in mind that the average wage earner in Israel makes
between 5-6,000 shekels.
Besides these inflated salaries, many employees add phony "overtime
hours" to their salaries to swell their final monthly salary even further.
The Vardi Report mentioned that over 100 employees listed "overtime" on Yom
Kippur, which is the only day in the year when no one in the country works.
Gil Samsonov, Chairman of the Board of the Israel Broadcasting
Authority, said, "This situation, where public sector employees are paid
such high salaries from the public coffers, is simply not logical. This is
chaos!" The Board decided to cut salaries to no more than 19,000 shekels -
although Yisrael Medad, of Israel Media Watch, is not optimistic about an
actual implementation of the decision.
Medad commented dryly, "All previous decisions regarding efficiency
and cost-cutting programs in the IBA were never implemented, and I fear
that it will be the same this time."
"The Authority is sick, very sick, and to heal it, there is need
for a painful, profound operation which will base it on new foundations,"
Vardi wrote. "Because the Authority is rotten to the core, the Commission
concluded, there is no alternative but to fire the Authority employees and
reconstruct it anew."

Vardi's final recommendations include:
The Broadcasting Authority Law should be changed and all the
directors should be fired.
Hundreds of workers should be dismissed and the quota of the budget
set aside for workers should be reduced.
In place of the present administrative committee, a new public
council should be appointed by a High Court judge which includes leading
members of the academe, the arts, the justice system and the media instead
of by politicians.
A meeting of the Knesset Education Meeting last Tuesday levelled
strong criticism against how Vardi went about collecting information for
his report. Committee members pointed out how his report repeated itself
again and again "It was claimed" "it was told to me" and other phrases
which show that Vardi was willing to accept information on face value by
informants without carefully checking the source of the information. Much
of Vardi's report was based on the earlier Livna and Zuckerman reports on
the IBA ordered by Netanyahu which did nothing but gather dust.
He was also criticized for making a blanket recommendation to fire
all the directors, which he knows is unrealistic, and to fire the present
IBA plenum and appoint a new council who will be comprised completely of
the bohemia and other elite -- who are the ones who have the stranglehold
on Israel's media now.

To say that the Vardi Report is a call for fairer reporting, more
honest accounting, and eradication of corruption, is merely a superficial
reading of what is really going on in the IBA.
Religious Knesset members and politicians were bittersweet about
the Vardi report, since the religious community has long been the
punching-bag of the Israeli media. Religious politicians have levelled
bitter criticism against the IBA for years for its policy of discrimination
against the religious community, but this long-standing complaint did not
find it way into the Vardi report.
The Knesset Finance Committee was supposed to decide whether to
pass the 750 million shekel annual budget of the IBA a mere two days after
the Vardi report was issued. Not surprisingly, the budget did not pass,
largely due to the opposition of religious members in the Finance
Committee. Pressure applied by the Committee chairman (One Israel) Eli
Goldshmidt and the Prime Minister's Office was ineffective.
Despite the Vardi Report's omissions and superficiality, the
religious felt that it vindicated their outrage against the IBA for its
vilification of the religious community. "After hearing radio reports for
months detailing the corruption in our El Maayan School system, I now hear
that our school system next to the broadcasting authority deserves a
certificate of excellence," said Shas' chairman, Eli Yishai, with some
cynicism.
"For some time I assessed and smelled that things were going on
there in violation to proper administration," explains MK Meir Porush, a
member of the Finance Committee. "Public representatives were afraid to put
things in order there, because of the fear that they would suffer
repercussions. It's no secret that several people sitting in Romema (seat
of the IBA) decide who the people will hear and how often [on radio and
TV]. Public representatives were afraid of being secretly banned and so
they kept silent. Now, the report opened everyone's eyes and everyone know
who they are."
"The IBA holds 40 frequencies," says Porush, "but the religious and
national religious communities don't even have one of them. It's
scandalous. The State gives frequencies to the Arabs, to new immigrants, to
music-lovers from all over the world. But to us they are not willing to
give anything." He says that religious Jews have no vehicle of expression,
and the IBA manipulates public opinion so that religious Jews are seen as
the source of the country's problems.
Deputy Finance Minister (Shas) Nissim Dehan mentions that the Vardi
report says nothing that he didn't complain about continuously in the past
years at previous Finance Committee meetings. The corruption and the huge
salaries were all pointed out previously by him. "Whenever we go in to
Barak and speak him with about the need to have religious channels, he
makes a face as if we are asking for a special privilege. This State is
unfortunately sectorial -- all in one direction."
Dehan says that the total religious content that is broadcast on
state radio amounts to half a percent, whereas the religious and national
religious population constitutes twenty per cent of the country. And Dehan
says that even this half percent can barely be called "religious
programming." "Do you know what it is composed of? Take all the
broadcasting minutes of religious content such as reciting Shema Yisroel in
the morning at 6:00 a.m., the Haftora reciting erev Shabbos, "the daily
posuk", etc. and you reach half a percent. This is not religious
broadcasting, but the spiritual assets of the entire nation. All this comes
out to half a percent. In fact, the religious do not get anything.
"I told the heads of the IBA that their complaints that the
religious pirate channels are stealing the public channels is the opposite
of the truth. In fact, they are stealing the frequencies from us. What,
they don't understand that our children have nothing to listen to at home?
We have no particular interest to have religious channels operating from
shelters and warehouses. If the IBA would provide the programs that the
religious channels are providing, I would agree to closing down all the
pirate channels," says Dehan.
UTJ Knesset member Avrohom Ravitz objects to forming a religious
division inside of the IBA and claims that the only true solution to the
problem of religious broadcasting is for Israel to adopt an "open skies"
policy. Part of the problem is that the religious community has a
difficulty in joining certain state institutions such as the IBA where
blatant Shabbos desecration is carried out, and for which they would
therefore have a certain responsibility.
"I recently proposed a law that any person who has the money can
open his own radio station. The skies will be open to everyone and no one
will have a monopoly on the frequencies. I don't understand why in such a
westernized country like ours, the foundations for freedom of expression
are so outdated and unfair."
Ravitz says that open skies will save numerous problems. "Let's say
that due to Shas's power, they will be given a radio station. But what
about all the other good religious channels who aren't affiliated with
Shas? What will be with them? With an open sky policy, everyone can go into
the air and broadcast. Who will determine who is the most popular station?
The public alone. If the public won't listen to its broadcasts, the station
won't be able to exist. There are some that complain that with an open sky
policy, then extreme-leftist stations similar to those of Abie Nathan's
will go on air. To people who say this, I reply, "Don't worry! There isn't
a radio station more leftwing than Kol Yisroel, and the situation could
only improve."
There are plain reasons why Ravitz's idea is the preferred solution
for the religious community. The tighter the government control over the
media, the worse it has always been for the religious community. Ben Gurion
knew what he was doing when he established the government's tight control
over the media. The more democratic the media is, the more power this gives
the people and elements in the state with tenuous representation in the
government. The religious would finally to able to present their viewpoint
professionally and vie with the secular for the minds and hearts of the
population.
When we hear of pronounced anti-religious elements like Foud Ben
Eliezer announcing passage of a law that will legalize two religious
channels or give Channel One to the religious, we shouldn't be taken in
that he has the religious community's interests at heart. It is far more
likely that he is pushing an anti-religious measure or at least one as
disadvantageous as possible for the religious. Furthermore, as long as
religious broadcasting is controlled by the government, we suffer the risk
that the powers-that-be will be able to control the appointees and dilute
the content.
Moreover, a station or channel which was authorized by the
government can always lose its authorization, or be closed down for any of
a number of contrived reasons. But once the skies are opened to all, the
government will be hardpressed to revoke the privilege.
Government control is the direct reason for the corruption rampant
in the IBA. As long as government continues to pay salaries, there is no
public to whom the officials and employees are answerable and therefore
corruption will continue unabated. The only ones whom IBA employees will
have to satisfy and whose policies they will have to toe are the Prime
Minister's Office and other government officials.
In addition to the incitement and calumny directed against the
religious community, a rightwing non-profit association, Israel's Media Watch
(IMW), has catalogued other wide-ranging media abuses. It mentions, for
example, that it was only last year that it became legal for any other
radio station except Kol Yisrael and Galei Tzahal to broadcast news of
national content rather than local news. The over a dozen regional radio
stations affiliated with the Second Radio and Television Authority (SRATA)
were not allowed to broadcast news except relating to their particular
region.
The monies for Kol Yisrael and Galei Tzahal comes from the
government as well as directly from citizens who must pay the Agra, the
television and radio ownership tax (not a license fee as mistakenly
thought). Despite being state-sponsored and publicly funded, their
programming, scheduling and show content are clearly unbalanced, and the
public is forced to imbibe of a cultural agenda and news commentary bias
from an entrenched media clique that, in the name of press freedom prefer
to indoctrinate rather than do their work professionally.
IMW reviewed the guest list of a popular radio interview program
broadcast over Kol Yisrael. Hosted by Dalia Ya'iri, 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 Yechimovitch, Ya'iri's
program deals 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 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% of those
offered an open mike held opinions in opposition to the government's
position.
Of the 17 background commentators and experts who were invited to
express their opinions and provide objective and academic analysis, 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.
Israel's Media Watch concludes that Israel's form of media presentation is
not only an ethical problem but is inimical to the very essence of a free
press. This is not a question of fairness but of a situation in which a
press corps which the public is forced to fund is protected from normal
hiring and firing practices because they are state employees, and who
manipulate the equipment and status provided them to act in a biased
manner.
IMW furthermore notes that the huge IBA salary deviations were not
reported on the public media, although the news department talked about the
salaries of all the other sectors. When the budget of the IBA wasn't
approved by the Finance Ministry, the IBA did not report on it either.
There is concern that the Vardi Report will be used by Barak & Co.
to further consolidate their hold on the country's media. They will utilize
the report's recommendations to fire those few non-leftist employees
instated during the previous government such as Gil Samsonov and Uri Porat,
while keeping the other leftist employees in place.
This fear is backed by the quick, superficial study performed by
the Vardi commission, and the alacrity with which Barak appointed a special
committee to implement the report's recommendations as soon as it came out.
The members of the committee -- Yossi Kuchik, general director of the Prime
Minister's Office, Buzi Herzog, secretary of the Cabinet, and Elyakim
Rubenstein, Attorney General -- have all shown themselves adept at bending
or interpreting laws to promote anti-religious interests. Kuchik and Herzog
were prime names implicated in the phony associations scheme which
illegally propelled Barak into power. Does it make sense that the prime
suspects implicated in the phony associations scandals will be the ones to
clean out the corruption from the IBA?
On page 25, paragraph 3 of the Report, Vardi recommends: "To
abrogate all existing institutions [in the IBA] and to appoint a temporary
director general to act under the appointed minister as long as the
legislative procedure [to erect a nice IBA] has not finished."
Who is the appointed minister being referred to? It is Barak, the
prime minister. Vardi recommends that a new general director be appointed
to run the IBA who will be directly responsible to Barak. Can there be a
more political appointment than this? And since legislation to change the
IBA will be an excruciating, lengthy process that will take a good number
of years, Vardi's recommendation amounts to giving Barak a direct veto and
stranglehold on the IBA. Even though the leftist Israel media propelled him
into power, lately Barak has been irked by the barrage of attacks against
him. How does Vardi expect the necessary revolution and "cleaning of the
stables" to take place under these conditions?
Barak has been working insidiously over the past few months to
insure that all media reports first passes under his thumbprint. Three
months ago he pared down the Government Press Office in Beit Agron while
increasing the public relations department in the Prime Minister's Office,
and now he is moving fast to make changes in the IBA.
Several signs that Barak sees the IBA as a prime target to control
came this week. The first sign was the declaration by Yossi Kuchik, the
Director-General of the Prime Minister's Office, that he does not rule out
the possibility of closing Israel Television for several months. Kuchik
says that he expects all the IBA seniors to resign, in accordance with the
recommendations of a government-commissioned board.
Another sign was the resignation of Zev Drori, the director of the
Army Radio Galei Tzahal for the past 2 years. Drori had made several
dramatic changes in the army radio to eliminate its secular bohemian flavor
and change its reputation for being a "soft job" for the children of the
secular elite. He also accepted a number of religious inductees to work for
the army radio, a move almost unheard of until then.
Drori paid a heavy price for his innovations. After a witch hunt
was mounted against him in the past few months, he finally decided to pick
up and go. The last outrage perpetrated by the army radio, from Barak's
point of view, was the new items reported by the correspondent for the
territories, Yanun Magal, about the 21 settlements which the Defense
Ministry is planning to uproot, and which Barak had wanted to keep under
cover. Deputy Defense Minister Ephraim Sneh, castigated the reporter for
his unauthorized revelation, but it was Drori who led it go through.
Now that Drori is out of the way, the names being suggested for
directing the army radio include Avi Benayahu, an extreme leftist, and
Yitzchak Tonik, who was appointed a few days a go as the head editor.

One politician who expressed surprise at how enthusiastically Barak
is implementing Vardi's recommendations is Avigdor Leiberman, the head of
the rightwing Yisroel Bateinu party which recently merged with the National
Union. He says the report with Barak's immediate implementation of the
recommendations reminds him of Navon's tight control of the media during
the sixties. "I'm afraid that someone wants to return us again to those
days. What surprises me in this story is that I have been repeating the
basic conclusions of the Vardi Report for years from every platform, and
because of it, they opened a file against me in the police."
"Maybe Vardi will become the subject of a police investigation now
too?" he adds sarcastically.

Words of Wisdom

"The one thing that detained me was the newspaper, a journal printed
in London and then distributed around the country, a most novel
idea...Cromwell, and then the returned King Charles, did their best
to restore some form of order, rightly surmising that such stuff merely
lulls people into thinking that they understand matters of state. 
And a more foolish notion can scarcely be imagined, it being obvious
that the reader is only informed of what the writer wishes hime to
know, and is thus seduced into believing almost anything. 
Such liberties do nothing but convert the grubby hacksters who
produce these tracts into men of influence, so they strut around
as though they were gentlemen of quality.  Anyone who has ever
met one of these English journalists will know just how ridiculous that is".

-   An observation on the media and media persons from the historical
mystery novel "An Instance of the Fingerpost" by Iaian Pears, 1998,
set in England in the 1660s.

Contribution.
If you think that IMW's work is important and helps maintain a democratic civil society in Israel and aids in providing a couter-balance to the pervasive and powerful influence of an unchecked media, you are invited to make a contribution. In Israel, our address is listed below.
For those in the United States, tax-exempt donations can be made out to "PEF" located at 317 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10017. 
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Israel's Media Watch is a non-partisan civic advocacy group - IMW is a registered non-profit organization whose major aim is assuring the ethical and fair conduct of the Israeli media. 

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