Israel's
Media Watch
update report # 37
March 31, 2000
Contents:
- IMW News
- Words of Wisdom
- Media News (Israel and Other)
IMW News:-
1. Subscription Fees
Our supporters and members received in the mail our bulletin but
as yet,
only a small percentage has responded with their subscription
fees. IMW exists
solely on donations and our financial situation is serious.
All those who have not as yet done so, we ask you to:
a) send in your contribution post haste
b) ask a friend to join
c) inform us of additional sources of funding
Thank you.
2. IMW has written to the Commissioner on Monopolies, David
Tadmor,
and complained that radio Kol Yisrael is a monopoly concerning
radio
commercials. According to information gathered, Kol Yisrael's
income
amounts to some 60% of the market as opposed to 15 other regional
stations.
IMW pointed out that Kol Yisrael uses unfair methods of selling
packages
of commercials that are broadcast over sectoral stations such as
the Haifa "Kol
Batuach" and the 88FM station.
IMW demanded that Kol Yisrael be obliged to limit the amount of
minutes
per hour of commercials broadcast, similar to the custom at the
Second Radio &
TV Authority (SRATA).
3.
IMW is proud to have provided assistance to the students of the
Neveh Channah School in Gush Etzion in connection with their
internet
project and we were delighted to receive the following posting:
"AT&T Virtual Classroom Contest 99, Friday,
March 24, 2000
Congratulations to all the finalists!
The winners will be announced April 10 or 11.
The eight finalists for the secondary school team category are:
VC-26 "Media Power and Politics"
http://ftp1.att.virtualclassroom.org/vc_26/
Canadian International School of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
Neveh Channah Torah High School for Girls, Israel
Pasco High School, USA"
4. Radio Show Reminder
The media centered radio show "Chofesh HaShidur" (Freedom
of Broadcasting)
can be heard in Hebrew every Sunday morning after the 8AM news on
Arutz 7 and
over their website. Hosted by Rami Sadan and Yisrael Medad,
the program
comments and
interviews on media issues here in Israel.
Media News in Israel
1.
Arutz Sheva News Service Thursday, March 30, 2000
THE THIRD STATION
A Knesset vote this week approving the establishment of a third
television
channel has paved the way for it to start operations as soon as
one year
from now. Israel currently has one public station and one
commercial
station. Companies interested in taking part in the new
station's
productions will be asked to place their bids within four months.
The new
channel will broadcast not only its own programs but also its own
news
broadcasts. Avi Schmidt, chairman of the Legislative
Committee of the
Broadcasting Authority was asked by Arutz-7 yesterday: "Is
this decision
good or bad for the TV market in Israel?" Schmidt
responded,
"Fundamentally, the new law is a good one, but we must
remember that the
bottom line is that there will be a second commercial television
station in
Israel, which means that the fight for popular ratings will be
intensified.
Those who were hoping for higher-quality content or Jewish
programming
will therefore be disappointed." Schmidt, who serves
as Deputy Director of
the Ma'aleh school for religious Zionism and journalism,
recommended that
the religious-traditional public enter the market: "I
think it's high time
for a breakthrough in this area by our people, and especially in
the area
of news, where we have suffered greatly from the current
constellation -
and I believe that we have what to offer. Unfortunately,
however, only a
group with very strong financial backing will be able to submit a
bid."
A new commercial station
Ha'Aretz Editorial, March 30, 2000
On Tuesday the Knesset approved the law establishing an
additional
commercial television channel, and thus broke the monopoly on
advertising
on television held by Channel Two. Until now, the television
broadcasting
map has been divided among the public channel, which taxes
viewers with an
annual fee, cable channels that charge subscription fees, and the
second
channel which is funded by advertising.
The fact that each of these is funded from a different source
means that in
effect no competition has developed among the channels, to the
detriment of
viewers.
The cable channels have taken no interest in whether their
viewers are
pleased with the programming they offer, and have not given
customers the
option of choosing various broadcast packages. Channel One has
degenerated
into a prolonged production coma, while Channel Two has been
broadcasting
rating-grabbing programs, and has not seen fit to invest the vast
amounts
of money it has earned in quality productions.
The new commercial channel promises competition for the hearts of
viewers
and the wallets of advertisers. It is reasonable to assume that
the
opposition of the holders of the Channel Two concessions to the
establishment of another commercial channel stems from a natural
fear of
dwindling profits, and not from any fear that the quality of
programming
will decline.
There is only a little the state can do in the realm of
controlling the
quality of broadcasts, primarily through legislation limiting the
duration
of the concession and by setting quotas for original productions.
In this respect, a lot has been learned from the establishment of
Channel
Two, and this time the legislature has explicitly stipulated that
the two
concession holders will have to broadcast 111 hours of original
productions
concentrating on comedy, drama and documentaries, and not only on
sports
and current events talk shows.
It also stipulated that these programs will be broadcast during
prime time.
Now that the legislature has done its best to see to it that the
concession
holders meet their obligations, and has determined that after
four years
there will be an examination of the results to decide whether the
concession will be extended, it is up to the viewer to see to it
that the
outcome is reasonable by pressing the button on his remote
control.
The demand for uncompromising programming quality, free of rating
considerations, must be directed to the public channel, funded by
the user
tax. The government must now turn its attention to a structural
change in
Channel One, which is charged with the cultural mission of
raising the
quality threshold and serving as a role model for the other
stations.
Communications Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer's success in
establishing the
new commercial channel should encourage him to draw the right
conclusions
when the time comes to renew the concessions for Channel Two as
well as in
negotiations with the owners of the cable stations. The
government and the
Knesset have it in their power to save television in Israel from
brutal
concentration in the hands of a few tycoons.
The new commercial channel has come into a world in which the
means of
centralized control are growing weaker and access to information
through
the Internet, as well as to entertainment, news and music, is
turning
television into one of many communications media, and not
necessarily the
most important of them. It is difficult to predict what the fate
of the
existing and the new television channels will be, but for the
moment it
looks as though the government's decision to set up an additional
commercial channel is sensible and serves the public good.
© copyright 2000 Ha'aretz. All Rights Reserved
2. The Right of the Public to Know
NEWSPAPERS REFUSE TO PUBLISH
PAID ADVERTISEMENTS WHICH QUOTE VERBAL ATTACKS
BY LEFTISTS AGAINST THE RELIGIOUS COMMUNITY
by Betzalel Kahan
(Israeli Yated Neeman, March 30, 2000)
The secular media only permits the public's right to know -
apparently
only when it goes against the religious
A group of citizens who sought to publish paid advertisements in
the
general media which included quotes of rabid, inciting and
extremely harsh
words made by leftists against the religious public were shocked
to
discover that the media refused to publish the advertisements.
The ads were intended to be large, carrying the headline "When
a
leftist incites - he receives the Israel Prize." The
advertisement
furthermore wrote: "For many years the left has been
spilling our blood
and Rubenstein keeps silent. The true implementors of violence --
are the
left. The true inciters -- are Yossi Sarid and Meretz."
The advertisement includes extensive quotes of many spokesmen of
the left against the religious community, such as Yossi Sarid,
Shulamit
Aloni, Naomi Chazan, Michael Ro'eh, Staf Wertheimer, Oded
Eligon, Prof.
Uzi Arnon, and others. Among their quotes one can find appalling
and
inciting expressions, which were responsible for provoking harsh
violence
against the religious community.
The advertisement concludes with these words: "Enough
Racisim --
Citizens for Justice by the State Prosecutor." It also
includes a large
picture of a religious man being beaten by a Meretz activists
last Friday,
during the demonstration held in Ramat Aviv in Tel Aviv. The
pictures and
the facts that appear in the advertisement were taken from Manof's
database
- the Center for Religious Public Relations."
The group of people who sought to publicize the advertisement
note
that they wanted to publicize the advertisement for full price in
the
secular papers, but the newspapers refused to publish them.
"Apparently,
the right for the public to know and freedom of expression
applies to only
one side," they said.
3.
Pirate broadcasters claim they have been used as scapegoats
By Charlotte Halle
Ha'Aretz, Anglo-File, March 31, 2000
Former employees of an English-language pirate radio station, who
are on
trial for illegal broadcasting, say they have been made
scapegoats by the
authorities who are desperate to prove that they are cracking
down on such
activities.
"Radio West has no political agenda or backing, so we are a
weak and easy
target when the government wants to single out a pirate radio
station to
show that they are doing something," said David Starck, who
is one of the
five defendants. Starck describes the action as "blatant
discrimination,"
in view of the many unlicensed radio stations that police have
not taken
action against, including a number of Russian and Ultra-Orthodox
broadcasters.
Communications Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer denies that Radio
West has
fallen victim to a discriminatory policy. He told Anglo File that
his
ministry gives equal treatment to "all unlicensed
broadcasters, regardless
of the context and nature of the broadcasts."
However, officials at the Second Television and Radio Authority -
the body
that is responsible for issuing regional radio licenses -
acknowledged that
pirate radio stations with political backing are "more
problematic to close
down," but emphasized that the authority would "fight
against any radio
station broadcasting against the law." Current court
proceedings against
Channel Seven were cited as an example of the fair implementation
of how
the regulations are being fairly implemented.
Meir Attar, owner of Radio West, and former employees who were
present at
the station during the police raid in June 1999, appeared at a
preliminary
hearing at the Jerusalem Magistrate's Court last month. Fines for
illegal
broadcasting can be as high as NIS 50,000, so the defendants were
discouraged to hear the prosecutor say that he is "looking
for a
conviction." U.S.-born lawyer Paul Stark, who is defending
Starck and
fellow former employee Michal Cohen, says he believes that the
court "wants
to make an example [of Radio West] as part of the crackdown
against illegal
broadcasting."
"We never made a secret of who we were of the fact that we
were looking to
gain a license," says Starck, who also admits that he "never
really knew
what was going on behind the scenes."
Radio West began operating in October 1997 and broadcasted
without a
license from Jerusalem for almost two years before the raid. Ha'aretz
English Edition was approached on a number of occasions by
representatives
from Radio West, but despite assurances that a license was
pending,
declined to cooperate until the station received permission to
broadcast.
The Jerusalem Post had no such inhibitions: Editor Carl Shrag
told Anglo
File that the newspaper had advertised on Radio West and carried
the
station's program listings.
Ben-Eliezer has established a committee charged with providing
radio
stations for specific communities. "I give great credence to
the need for
proper media expression of cultural pluralism in Israel," he
told Anglo File:
Stark believes that Radio West had an important role to play in
the English
speaking community in Israel, which is now left unfulfilled.
"No one denies
we served a purpose. But if we had someone in the Knesset on our
side, we'd
still be operating today." Starck and his co-defendants are
due to appear
in court for a second pre-trial hearing on April 17.
Media News Abroad
(Caveat: FAIR is known as an extreme left-wing group but
nevertheless, because
of some comparable occurences in the Israeli media, we thought
the
following to be
worthy of interest)
WHY WERE GOVERNMENT PROPAGANDA EXPERTS WORKING ON NEWS AT CNN?
March 27, 2000
Reports in the Dutch newspaper Trouw (2/21/00, 2/25/00) and
France's
Intelligence Newsletter (2/17/00) have revealed that several
officers from
the US Army's 4th Psychological Operations (PSYOPS) Group at Ft.
Bragg
worked in the news division at CNN's Atlanta headquarters last
year,
starting in the final days of the Kosovo War.
In the U.S. media, so far only Alexander Cockburn, columnist for
The Nation
and co-editor of the newsletter CounterPunch, has picked up on
the story.
Cockburn's column on the subject is available at http://www.counterpunch.org
The story is disturbing. In the 1980s, officers from the 4th Army
PSYOPS
group staffed the National Security Council's Office of Public
Diplomacy
(OPD), a shadowy government propaganda agency that planted
stories in the
U.S. media supporting the Reagan Administration's Central America
policies.
A senior US official described OPD as a "vast psychological
warfare
operation of the kind the military conducts to influence a
population in
enemy territory." (Miami Herald, 7/19/87) An investigation
by the
congressional General Accounting Office found that OPD had
engaged in
"prohibited, covert propaganda activities," and the
office was soon shut
down as a result of the Iran-Contra investigations. But the 4th
PSYOPS group
still operates.
CNN has always maintained a close relationship with the Pentagon.
Getting
access to top military officials is a necessity for a network
that stakes
its reputation on being first on the ground during wars and other
military
operations.
What makes the CNN story especially troubling is the fact that
the network
allowed the Army's covert propagandists to work in its
headquarters, where
they learned the ins and outs of CNN's operations. Even if the
PSYOPS
officers working in the newsroom did not influence news reporting,
did the
network allow the military to conduct an intelligence-gathering
mission
against CNN itself?
For instance, one PSYOPS officer worked in CNN's satellite
division.
According to Intelligence Newsletter, rear admiral Thomas
Steffens, a
psychological warfare expert in the Special Operations Command,
recently
told a PSYOPS conference that the military needed to find ways to
"gain
control" over commercial news satellites to help bring down
an
"informational cone of silence" over regions where
special operations were
taking place.
An unofficial strategy paper published by the U.S. Naval War
College in 1996
and written by an Army officer ("Military Operations in the
CNN World: Using
the Media as a Force Multiplier") urged military commanders
to find ways to
"leverage the vast resources of the fourth estate" for
the purposes of
"communicating the [mission's] objective and endstate,
boosting friendly
morale, executing more effective psychological operations,
playing a major
role in deception of the enemy, and enhancing intelligence
collection."
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