The Knesset voted 53-48 to pass Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi’s sweeping media overhaul on Thursday, in the final part of the coalition’s legislative blitz before the Knesset is expected to dissolve Friday ahead of the October 27 election.

The law will significantly expand government control over Israel’s broadcast media and news sector by overhauling media regulation, removing longstanding oversight mechanisms, minimum journalistic standards, obligations to invest in original Israeli productions and restrictions on cross-ownership, while giving the government greater influence over television ratings and state advertising allocation.

The legislation also included a last-minute amendment that will exempt the pro-government Channel 14 news outlet from a new requirement obligating broadcasters to provide certain content to television platforms free of charge. The exemption is estimated to be worth roughly NIS 40 million ($13.8 million) annually.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, on trial in cases relating to media control, participated in the debate, though not in the final vote. Karhi thanked him from the podium for assigning him to pilot the legislation through the Knesset: “Mr. Prime Minister, I want to thank you and tell you that the mission you gave me four years ago — to deliver right-wing reform of the media — was today successfully completed.”

Such a directive would appear to violate a conflict-of-interest agreement that Netanyahu signed with the attorney general, barring the premier from getting involved in setting policy pertaining to the media, given his ongoing criminal trial into his allegedly illicit attempts to influence press coverage.

Addressing the issue amid uproar from the opposition, Karhi later claimed that he received a legal opinion determining that Netanyahu is not actually in a conflict of interest by getting involved in the legislation.

Immediately after the law’s passage, petitions against it were filed with the High Court of Justice by several government watchdog groups and political parties, who requested that the court issue an interim order freezing its implementation before ultimately issuing a ruling that strikes down the legislation.

The petitions allege a slew of severe procedural flaws in the legislative process, which they say should invalidate the law by itself, something the Knesset legal adviser has repeatedly warned of regarding the manner in which the media law was passed.

A petition filed by the Movement for Quality Government in Israel also pointed out that parts of the law come into effect immediately, which will “cause irreversible damage to the media market” just ahead of the October 27 election.

“The communications minister himself declared that his goal is to ‘crush the left’s monopoly on the media’ — in other words, to subordinate the press to the government,” said Yaniv Goldberg of the Movement for Quality Government.

“We have petitioned the court because without a free media there are no free elections, and we are confident that the court will stop this legislative ambush as well.”

Karhi defended the legislation, arguing that it serves to balance what he claims is an overwhelmingly anti-government media landscape.

“After a determined struggle against every possible element from the deep state, tycoons, attorneys, officials and fearmongering networks – we managed to pass the right-wing media........

© The Times of Israel