Knesset: Privatization of the Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation (IPBC). The State does not have the Right of Free Speech (English/Deutsch/Ivrit)

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The institution of ‘Public Broadcasting’ is a nuisance in all democracies worldwide. They are left-wing, woke and very expensive. Most are anti-Israeli and harbour prejudices against Judaism in general. In Israel for example the ‘Makan 33’ channel broadcasts songs of praise for the antisemitic and antidemocratic “Palestinian” mass murderer Yasser Arafat.

They distort the necessary competition and provide little benefit, if any at all. The few quality programs that stray here and there can be commissioned to private broadcasters if the state believes this is urgently necessary.

Worldwide ‘Public Broadcasting’ has now become, especially in Germany or the UK, a highly manipulative surveillance instrument for an antisemitic left-wing agenda. After all, it is not the job of the state (or an army) to operate entertainment media. A radio station for emergencies is enough, maybe.

In this sense, the privatization of ‘public broadcasting’ in Israel is highly welcomed. We can only hope that privatization does not lead to a few oligarchs taking advantage.

It would be a pseudo-privatization, as we often saw in Russia or the former GDR. Privatizing socialist structures is a very difficult undertaking, as many oligarchs with the necessary political connections are happy to take advantage.

A successful privatisation is an invaluable contribution to freedom of opinion and free speech, a failed one is a deterioration.

Debate in the Knesset

In the press release of the Knesset aspects of the debate in the Knesset are summarized: “In its sitting on Wednesday, the Knesset Plenum voted to approve in preliminary reading the Privatization of the Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation Bill, 2022, sponsored by MK Tally Gotliv (Likud).

In the vote, 49 Members of the Knesset supported the bill, versus 46 who opposed it. The bill will be turned over to the House Committee to decide the committee in which it will be deliberated.

It is proposed to stipulate that the Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation (IPBC) will be closed after two years from the start date of the bill and that a tender will be held for choosing private entities that will receive a license from the Second Authority for Television and Radio to operate television broadcasts on the channels in which the IPBC currently broadcasts.

It is further proposed to stop all radio broadcasts of the IPBC, except the Reshet Bet station. It is proposed that Reshet Bet function as a nationwide radio station to be operated by a private entity that will be chosen by a tender and will receive a license from the Second Authority for Television and Radio.

MK Gotliv, the bill’s sponsor: “The IPBC gives service to the public, at the expense of the public, without asking the public whether it wants it or not. We’re in 2024, the media channels are available to everyone, and the radio stations are available to everyone. Do we all have to pay 150 shekels for a vehicle licensing test to listen to Reshet Bet? How is the IPBC different from any other channel? Why do we have to finance this and pay for the provision of this service?”

Minister of Communications MK Shlomo Karhi (Likud): “For six years I have been submitting the same bill, based on a liberal economic worldview that in a free market era, there is no need for the public to finance public broadcasting. There are enough news channels in the private market, all of which have higher viewer ratings than public broadcasting. What reason do we have to pay hundreds of millions to finance a product that exists on the market? On the IPBC’s [Arabic-language] Makan 33 channel, songs of praise were played for the mass murderer Yasser Arafat. This is a channel that incites against the State of Israel during wartime.” (end of quote)

Eli David posted on X which expresses the general sentiment within Israel. The majority is done with the ‘Public Broadcasting’ in Israel. He posted: “What does “elimination of freedom of speech” have to do with it? Go express yourself wherever you want about whatever you want, but why should the taxpayer finance it? Kudos to the minister Shlomo Karhi who is leading the privatization of the Broadcasting Authority. Hopefully, right after, he will also privatize the IDF airwaves. Every citizen will hear, watch, and read the messages he wants, and not fund something he doesn’t want.“

The Minister of Communications, Shlomo Karhi, nailed it in his critique of the unelected elites of the deep state which try to fold the privatization: “(…) My broadcasting reform, which will open the market to competition and completely stop the state’s intervention in the content, has been delayed by her (note by VonNaftali: the ombudsman of the ministry) for two months in drafting. This bill and the other reforms I am promoting will lead to more diversity and more freedom of expression without the need for public funding – a free and competitive market. It’s been six years since I submitted the bill for the privatization of the corporation from a liberal right-wing worldview. There is no reason for the citizens of Israel to continue to fund this unnecessary broadcast out of their own pockets. Certainly not a broadcast that sings songs of praise of the murderer Yassir Arafat. Investing in an Israeli creation – yes, unnecessary and biased news and current events that also harm the competition – no and no.“

Failed Argumentations: The State does not have the Right of Free Speech

The accusation that stopping tax funding represents a restriction of freedom of speech is factual and logical nonsense. Fundamentally, human rights such as freedom of speech are defensive rights of citizens against the state and not rights that the state enjoys and exercises against citizens. The State does not have the Right to Free Speech (Freedom of Speech). Only the citizens have the Right to Free Speech (Freedom of Speech). Those who think that the state has this right are characteristic of self-righteous arrogance: We are the law. No. It is the citizens who define the law. We, the People.

Finally just one remark on the faulty logic aka wrong logical conclusion, where the mistake of false equation is made. Abolishing public broadcasting is not abolishing freedom of speech or even art, because public broadcasting is not identical with art or freedom of speech. Fact.
So one can only hope that real privatization will succeed. Israel deserves and needs better elites and media

The explanatory notes to the bill state: “In an era of multi-channel television, which provides diverse and individual attention to every part of the population, and in an era of very highly accessible internet, the argument that public broadcasting is needed to give a response to the multiculturalism that exists in Israel—is no longer relevant. There is no reason for Israel’s citizens to continue to finance from their own pockets, directly through the licensing fee and indirectly utilizing a generous government budget, this unnecessary broadcasting.”

Long live Free Speech.